


Vigilante, Hero, or Whatever

by CreepsMalone, psychoticfire



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Deadpool!Connor, Electrokinetic/Hacker!Jared, Elemental!Evan, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gay boys fightin' crime, Hero AU, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Mind Control, Multi, Polyamory, bad quips on all the boys' sides, but not that kind of inappropriate, connor....has dp's healing abilities so.......maybe hes gonna get torn to bits but Its Fine, creds to our friend elliot for inspiration of elemental evan, inappropriate usage of tic tacs, spiderman!jeremy, stoners but no actual hardcore druggies...so far, telekinetic!michael, the SQUIP is involved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2019-10-23 06:59:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17678657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreepsMalone/pseuds/CreepsMalone, https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychoticfire/pseuds/psychoticfire
Summary: Their lives would look simple and normal to the outsider. Five boys, barely out of highschool, living together and sharing their rent with different paychecks from various different jobs. Jeremy, the video game designer. Michael, the part-time DJ. Evan, the guy who could give you a discount at Pottery Barn. Jared, the software engineer. And Connor, the... We'll get back to you on that.But really, their lives aren't that conventional. Unless there's an excessive amount of people living double lives as superheroes. And when Jared receives a potential case about a mind controlling drug, their lives are about to get much more interesting. Not that it was ever dull to begin with. After all, they're vigilantes. Heroes. Whatever.





	1. Chapter 1

Picking up a phone call while swinging through Brooklyn at roughly three blocks per second at a five story height wouldn't exactly be recommended by your average driving instructor, but Jeremy Heere did it anyway. 

Taking care not to let his phone slip as he fumbled for the answer button, he shot another strand of web fluid towards a distant building and pulled himself another block closer to his target. He pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey.”

“Dude, where are you?” Michael demanded. Jeremy could hear the distant sounds of a fight on his friend's side of the line. Or that could have just been the wind whistling through his mask. “We need backup, stat.”

“Why yes, Michael, I'm having a good day,” Jeremy replied, holding his phone a bit tighter as he rappelled down a bit, readying to land. “I just finished lecturing a gang on life choices, dude, what's up?”

“Jeremy,” Michael groaned. “Get your ass over here. Evan's down for the count, and you _know_ Connor's method is to stab first and ask questions later.”

Jeremy snorted to himself. “Shouldn’t you be helping then? Instead of taking a phone break?” He carefully maneuvered himself so that he could latch onto the side of the building without jostling things too much. He easily dropped down onto the safety of the street below. 

“Well, you see, that’s the thing about telekinesis, Jeremiah. It’s more of a mind thing. Hands aren’t necessarily required.” Michael’s voice remained as light and easy as ever despite the harsh crashing sounds emanating from the background. 

Jeremy just smiled, rolling his eyes to himself. “Is Jared there? And can I get a better reading on the location other than just ‘over here’?”

“A block away from that pizza place we always go to,” Michael muttered. “And Jared's back home. I think he's got leads on another case that he claims is top priority.”

“Ten bucks says he's taking a nap.” Jeremy aimed for the opposite street and swung himself up, doing an unnecessary flip midair before swinging himself towards Michael's specified location. 

“Yeah, probably.” There was a loud crash and Michael swore creatively. “Jeremy, I love you and all, but please hurry your Spandex-clad ass up.”

“On the way, geez.” Jeremy deposited himself on the rooftop of a building, not pausing to rest before running and leaping over the gaps between blocks. Despite that, he was barely winded. “Who are you up against?”

“Some dude who calls themselves Scorpion. Minor villain, I'd guess. He's got these weird things that shoot darts. Connor can't stab darts.”

Jeremy reached his destination and peered down. Sure enough, he saw Michael and Connor facing off against a dark figure, the former seemingly holding a shield as Connor tried to maneuver around the darts. “Got a visual.”

He leaped over the edge and landed on top of a dumpster, startling a large family of rats. “Hey there,” he said to the stunned villain. “Sorry for dropping in. Not sorry for quoting Jake Peralta.”

Michael grunted, not taking his eyes off of the villian. “Hey, thanks for joining us, babe. Less talky more fighty, please.” 

Jeremy took note that the villain, Scorpion, seemed only mildly perturbed at the arrival of yet another superhero. Or maybe he was considered a vigilante? Whatever. He quickly assessed the situation. “Are those just sleepy time darts or, like, death darts?”

Connor managed to weave his way around, moving with a practiced speed as he moved in, getting in a quick slash at the man’s side. 

Scorpion span around, instantly taking a swing at Connor. He dodged it easily, managing to get in another slash while the man was off guard. 

Jeremy hopped down from the dumpster, quickly shooting a small mass of webbing directly the end of Scorpion’s firing mechanism. It wouldn’t block it for very long, but it gave them time.

“Watch it,” Michael called out in warning as a large chunk of rock sailed over just over Jeremy’s head, smashing into the back of the villain and successfully knocking him to the ground. 

Jeremy squeaked in response. “Did you have to get so close to my head with that?!” 

Connor snorted as he moved back in to attempt to deal some damage to the device Scorpion was using to fire the darts while he was dazed. “You guys are shit at flirting.”

“I’d say I rock at it, actually,” Michael joked, thrusting his fist out, lifting another loose brick and hurtling it at Scorpion’s weapons. There was a loud satisfying crunch as the device cracked.

With a few quick movements, Jeremy had encased their enemy’s fists and mouth in fluid but strong webbing, pinning him to the ground and rendering him speechless in a physical way. Finally, Connor brought the butt of his knife down hard and knocked Scorpion out cold.

“That’s the eighth dude we’ve had to fight this week,” Michael said, wiping his hands on the smooth fabric of his hero suit. “Is it just me, or is the crime rate spiking?”

“Considering it’s only Wednesday, yeah,” Connor agreed.

Jeremy sighed. Then a sudden thought hit him- “Wait, where’s Ev?”

“Oh, yeah.” Michael turned and held out his hand, concentrating. A pile of bricks at the end of the alley shifted, revealing an unconscious, battered, but seemingly okay Evan. 

Turning to his boyfriend, Jeremy asked, “You buried him in bricks?”

“What? It was in the middle of fighting and calling you.”

Connor went over to examine his boyfriend, lifting Evan in his arms almost effortlessly and carrying him over to his friends. “We should get going. Police should be arriving any second, and while they think Jere’s all in all decently okay, they’re still pissed at me for some reason.”

“Maybe it was because of that Queens incident,” Michael suggested.

The mercenary made a face. “I wrecked _one_ building.”

“Because you were on your way to kill someone,” Jeremy said.

“In my defense, the payday was good.”

Michael snorted. “Alright. Let’s go home. Maybe Jared’s got some good news.”

Connor hummed, already making his way down the street. “Does he ever?”

Jeremy just laughed, shaking his head. “Good point.” He bumped Michael’s shoulder with his own. “If you want I can just swing us home, y’know. Sorry, Connor, only room for one passenger, though.” 

Michael bumped him back, shooting him a look. “If I agree to that you’re just gonna take me to a roof to make out again. Your absolute thirst never stops, Heere.”

Jeremy just pouted in response. “Maybe not, but in my defense making out is a very fun pastime.” 

“Once again, you two are sickening,” Connor cut in. “Either go bang on the empire state building or hush. The child is trying to sleep over here.” He readjusted Evan in his arms slightly. “Don’t taint him with your sad horniness.” 

Michael snorted unattractively. “I’m sure you do a great job tainting him on your own, buddy.” 

Jeremy nodded in agreement. “I’d say so, considering the things we’ve heard coming from you guys’ bedroom.”

“I will _stab_ you,” Connor threatened, clearly not meaning it. “Stab. You.”

“Funny, that’s not what you were saying to Jared last ni-”

“That’s it,” the merc growled. “Michael, catch.”

“Wha-” Michael thrust out his hands and managed to barely prevent Evan from falling to the ground as Connor dropped him and started running after Jeremy. “This really puts a new perspective to ‘drop everything and run’.”

Laughing, Jeremy webbed a passing streetlight and pulled himself onto the top of it, flipping Connor off while hanging upside down. Connor grabbed a knife and cut through his friend’s webbing, causing Jeremy to yelp and desperately swing himself to the side of the nearest building in an effort to regain his balance.

“I hope this isn’t how things usually go in the bedroom!” Jeremy yelled down at Connor as he leaped to the top of the building and pulled his mask up just enough to stick his tongue out at the other. Their laughter and taunts echoed off the buildings and alleys as the two continued to chase each other down the streets of New York and towards their way home.

\---

Jared Kleinman, although a genius hacker and a part-time vigilante whose skills with a gun combined with his ability to manipulate electricity made him one of the most powerful heroes in the city (discounting Jeremy, Michael, Connor, and Evan), preferred to spend his time lounging at home doing whatever he wanted. And since he was a software engineer by day, he could work from home. Making him the world’s nerdiest crime-fighting superhero.

“Home already? It’s like, three in the afternoon,” was his greeting as the three- four, if you counted the unconscious hero- stepped through the front door.

“And hello to you too,” Michael grumbled. “No, we’re fine. No, no new stab wounds. Yes, we finished the job. No, no trauma.”

“Shocking.” Jared glanced up at them and set his laptop aside. “No making out on the top of Times Square billboards, I hope?”

Jeremy tsked, pulling off his mask and tossing it onto the counter. “You get caught making out one time and suddenly you’re the billboard boys. At least me and Michael don’t have to invest in rope.”

Jared just shrugged it off, smirking. “Evan loves being tied down, what can I say? We strive to please the man.”

Connor thumped him. “Shut up, dumb ass.” 

“You guys are so loving,” Michael teased. “Very cute.” 

“Cute isn’t in Connor’s dictionary,” Jeremy opposed. “He’s too edgy and cool. Strictly badass.” 

Connor scoffed. “I didn’t come here to be harassed like this.” 

Jared hummed, grinning smugly. “As fun as all this ass talk is, shouldn’t we be caring for our unconscious hero boy over here?”

“What the fuck is ‘ass talk’?” Jeremy asked, scrunching up his nose. “We weren’t talking about any asses.” He hesitated. “Were we?” 

Michael patted Jeremy’s shoulder. “No, babe. No ass. I know that’s hard for you to hear.”

Connor just rolled his eyes, carrying Evan over to the couch and laying him down. “He took a pretty wicked hit. I’ll have to find him some advil. He’s _definitely_ gonna have a headache. I know I sure do, and that’s just from listening to you guys.”

“How rude,” Jeremy pouted.

“What happened to Ev?” Jared asked, concern showing in his voice.

“Tranq darts,” Connor said. “He did make an earthquake before he passed out though. That’s where we got our brick supply.”

“Brick supply?” Jared looked around at his friends. “Never mind. I don’t need to hear it. I do have news, though. I’m not sure if we should wait for Evan to wake up first, or…”

“Good news, or bad news?” Michael asked.

“It really depends on the viewer’s perspective, doesn’t it?”

Shrugging, Connor sat down on an armchair and leaned back, stretching. “How bad is it?”

“I’m not sure,” Jared said, pulling his laptop closer and typing rapidly. “I’ve got a file pulled up. It’s like some kinda freaky drug case, but I’ve never heard of this- I’m not sure if it’s even a drug.”

“Can I see?” Jeremy asked. Jared nodded and passed the laptop to him. The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man raised an eyebrow at the briefing file. “Keanu Reeves?”

“I didn’t have a pic of the perp. I grabbed a random photo off the ‘net.”

“There’s not really a lot of info here,” Michael said, reading over Jeremy’s shoulder. “Something about quantum processors. This some kind of Pym tech?”

“Just because they put the word ‘quantum’ in front of something doesn’t make it Hank Pym related,” said Connor.

“More importantly,” Jeremy cut back in. “Why Keanu? What did he do to you that you chose him to be the face of the potential crime ring?”

“No one said it was a ring,” Jared pointed out. “Don’t overestimate them like that, that’s what makes them feel good at night.”

“Why would you say it like that?”

Connor spoke up from his chair. “Shouldn’t we be talking about the new potential threat?”

“You’re not gonna get your dick sucked with that attitude, Connor.” 

Jeremy groaned, dramatically falling back against Michael’s chest as though he were wilting. “Please. An ounce of shame. I’m begging.”

“I’m not the one who was making out on a billboard!” 

Michael just shook his head, arms automatically snaking around Jeremy’s waist to hold him up. “This conversation is like experiencing a small slice of hell.”

Jared beamed proudly. “That means I’m doing a good job!”

Connor spoke up again. “So, the drug thing? Can we hear more about that?”

“Maybe.”

“Jared, this isn’t like a middle school rumor. It’s a crime. In real life.” Connor shot him a pointed look. “Behave, would you?” 

“If I don’t listen when you say that when we’re in bed, what makes you think I would listen now?”

“You know, I think I’ll just google it on my own,” Michael said. “This conversation just keeps getting worse. I’m going to go take a nap.” 

Jared tsked, pouting. “Ok, fine! For real though, maybe we should wait for Ev first. Repeating stuff is annoying.”

“Yeah, let’s wait for Ev.” Jeremy sighed. “It’s getting dark soon and I still have a project from my boss to finish up. I have to get it to him by Friday.”

“Shit, true,” Michael said, glancing at his phone. “My shift starts in like, an hour, and I’m covering double for Rich. We can discuss this tomorrow?”

“Yeah, okay,” Connor said wearily. “Have fun being the disc jockey for hundreds of horny teenagers. Until 3 in the early morning.”

“You’re one to talk about horny teenagers,” Michael muttered.

“I’ll bring Ev back to his room,” Jeremy cut in, grabbing his unconscious friend and hoisting him up with little difficulty, gently carrying him upstairs. Evan shifted in his arms, exhaling softly before continuing to sleep. Why was it always the villains who got the good gear? All Jeremy had was a radioactive spider bite and the power of chemistry.

He left Evan in his room, sprawled on the bed, and he went back to his own. He changed out of his suit quickly, hanging it up carefully in his closet. Sitting down on a beanbag in the corner, dressed in a comfortable Apocalypse of the Damned T-shirt and sweatpants, Jeremy turned Jared’s potential case over in his mind. 

Drug cases weren’t unusual in their area of expertise- re: crime-fighting- but he had a bad feeling about this one for some reason. Jeremy made a mental note to find out what was it with Jared and Keanu before getting up from the beanbag and reaching for his laptop. It was time to work for his share of the rent.

As a video-game designer, it was Jeremy’s job to write a storyline plot for a new and upcoming game from a considerably well-known company. He smirked to himself as he opened up a document containing a vague outline of his idea- a game with five teenage heroes as its protagonists, and various weird villains as each level’s antagonist. 

He wrote down another idea ( _’scorpion-like thing-person with tranq dart shooting mechanisms and lack of safety precautions against rocks’_ ), and saved the document. His legal, official job was a breeze. His second, secret job? Not so much. But in the end, it was all fine. He was a cool dude. A hero. Kind of.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we've got a gay one for you fellas -quinn

Michael didn’t mind his job a lot, honestly. 

A DJ by night, he spent most of his shift with headphones on and fingers hovering over the audio controls, mixing whatever he felt like with the occasional beat twist and bass drop, stirring the crowd into a frenzy and giving the neighbors headaches. Of course, he had to pretend he didn’t see the couples grinding against each other in the dark corners of the club, but that was trivial.

But additionally, the club he worked at was where almost everyone involved in the shadier aspects of business frequented. He also had a good viewpoint of the dance floor and a manageable look into the bar area. In fact, quite a few of his previous confrontations were results of him being on guard and some subtle telekinesis involving chairs and drunk customers.

So, yeah. Michael didn’t mind his job  _ that  _ much. At least he didn’t have to clean up the stains the morning after.

His eyes scanned the crowd a few feet below him. He worked adeptly with the audio controls, quickly spinning up a new mix with some pre-existing tracks and custom bass adjustments. “Be a DJ! Communicate with music! In a nightclub. With horny teenagers.”

Something caught his eye, and Michael paused. Someone in a suit, one of his hands tucked into his jacket like he was hiding something, trying his best to navigate the sea of moving bodies and drunk dancers.  _ Who comes to a nightclub like this in a  _ suit? _ It’s just not suitable. _

Sighing at the lack of people to appreciate his witty internal monologue, Michael leaned forward slightly, his gaze following where the man went. His eyes fell on what the suspect was holding, view hindered slightly by his jacket in the way- a thick wad of green bills.

That usually only meant one thing- either he was about to give the bartender a hefty tip, or an exchange was about to happen. A trade- an agreement. And after the news Jared had hinted about, Michael was more than a little wary as he kept his gaze trained on the man.

He tried not to be too obvious, sneaking only occasional glances. He watched the man idle in one of the empty corners of the room, the lack of light making it even harder to see. Eventually, however, Michael caught sight of another man as he approached the first one. This man wasn’t quite dressed as formally as the first, but his button down and slacks were still much too fancy for the club they were in.

They seemed to exchange a few words, the suited man glancing around to make sure no one was looking before subtly slipping the second guy the cash. 

The second man them passed something back in return, the item in question too small for Michael to actually see. With that, the pair shared a few more words and then parted ways. 

Michael had witnessed this same situation plenty of times in the past. A drug deal. And an obvious one at that. They hadn’t even noticed him watching. The question now, however, was if that drug deal did in fact relate back to the case Jared had been telling them about earlier.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave to go investigate without almost certainly getting in trouble with his job. He made a mental note to mention it when he got home.

In the meantime, he had a job to do.

\---

Evan was awake when Michael got home, sitting on the couch and staring at his phone as he scrolled through an article. He looked up as Michael slumped down on the empty spot next to him. “Tough shift?”

“Not really,” Michael mumbled, his voice muffled by a cushion. “Just tired.”

“Ah.” Evan nodded, setting down his phone. “The crime rates have gone up in the past week.”

“Yeah, we gathered.” Michael sat up straighter. “It’s weird. And annoying. I really need a good nap, but we can’t nap while running from rocket blasters and amateur gangs.”

“Right.” Ev was quiet for a moment. “Did I really just pass out right as the fight started?”

Michael shrugged. “We were caught off-guard. It’s fine, could’ve been worse. Remember that time Jared tried to fry the main system of that weird science lab a while back, and he ended up electrocuting Connor?”

“Yeah, but Con’s got that healing thing going for him.”

“Didn’t help his hair, though.” Michael quirked a smile as he remembered the messy, poofed-up hair that Connor had been sporting for a few hours after the incident. “Anyway, since you’re awake, is anyone else here?”

It was half-past three in the morning, but Michael knew that Jared often pulled all-nighters, Jeremy would be up modifying his suit or working on some kind of other project, and Connor slept incredibly lightly (with a gun under his pillow). So he wasn’t surprised when Evan nodded.

“Yeah, Jare’s in his room and Connor’s asleep, but I can go get him. Jere’s sleeping, but he told me to wake him up if anything interesting happens.”

Michael nodded idly, mulling it over. “I dunno.  Jared was telling us about some new drug case when we got home and I might have seen something relating to it at work. Do you think we should just go ahead and wake them up or should we wait until the morning?”

Evan shrugged, readjusting his sitting position slightly to be more comfortable.  “We don’t know if we’re gonna be suddenly called away to some other crime tomorrow. Plus, you and Jeremy have classes, right? It’s probably better to talk now while we have time.”

“Good point. I guess we should go get the other guys then.” He hesitated. “If I wake up Jeremy it might take a few minutes, though. He’s very... affectionate with me when he’s sleepy. Not that he isn’t trying to bang every second of the day anyway.”

Evan sucked his teeth. “This household is far too horny for its own good.”   

“Can you really say anything, though?”   

Evan squeaked. “Wh- Hey! I’m not as bad as Jeremy and Jared!” He paused. “Am I?”   

Michael snorted out a laugh, patting Evan’s shoulder comfortingly. “That’s between you and your god, brother.”   

Evan whined pitifully, finally getting to his feet. “Let’s just go get the others, jeez.”  

Michael laughed again, following suit. “Yeah, alright, Captain Bondage.”  

Evan all but screeched. “ _ Michael! _ ” He cried, turning to smack him. Unfortunately, the boy in question was already bounding up the stairs, grinning dumbly. 

Michael poked his head into Jeremy’s bedroom, not able to help his smile when he saw his boyfriend asleep on the bed, his laptop next to his blanketed figure. He almost felt bad when he reached over and shook him lightly. “Jeremy,” he said in a singsong voice. “Time to get up.”

Jeremy stirred, but only to pull his blanket over his head. “No,” came a distant reply beneath the covers. “Five more mins.”

“Wish I could,” Michael said ruefully. “C’mon babe, I’ve got a new potential lead on that drug case Jared was talking about.”

“I don’t wanna,” Jeremy whined. “Come  _ sleep _ , Micah.”

“Jeremy, babe, love of my life, I really hate to say this, but I can’t, and you can’t either.” Michael gave Jeremy a gentle shove, managing to push him onto his back. “It’ll just take a few minutes.”

Jeremy just let out a pitiful sound, one arm reaching up out of the blankets and finding its way to Michael’s shirt sleeve. “Counter offer. We cuddle super hard.” He tugged light on the fabric to try and urge him to lay down beside him.

“Counter counter offer. You wake up and we go learn about the drug crime thing and  _ then  _ we come back and cuddle super hard.” Compromise was key, after all. 

Jeremy was still for a second as he considered. Eventually, he peeked out from under the covers, eyeing Michael suspiciously. “Sweeten the deal?”

Michael smiled dumbly, reaching down to gently thread his fingers through Jeremy’s hair. “I’ll only kiss you if you don’t have morning breath.” 

Jeremy scoffed, smacking Michael’s shoulder. “You’re supposed to kiss me no matter what, bitch.” 

Michael just laughed, shrugging. “No stank breath for me, sorry.” 

“My breath is fine! Kiss.” Jeremy pulled the blankets down to reveal his face completely, pursing his lips as he looked up at Michael expectantly. 

Michael just hummed, leaning down to press a sweet kiss to Jeremy’s awaiting lips. He smiled into it, pulling away after a few second, much to Jeremy’s dismay.   

“That was very good, but the kiss tax has not been filled. More kisses required.” Jeremy pulled him back down, their lips meeting once again. 

Michael melted into it, a hand on Jeremy’s cheek as he gently pulled him to sit up, lips connected all the while. He hummed again, eventually pulling back to smile. “You’re stupid.”

Jeremy lazily tried to steal another kiss, missing Michael’s lips and hitting his chin instead. “You suck ass at Mario kart.”

Michael gave a faux gasp, feigning offence. “How could you say something like that? And I thought you loved me.” 

“Honesty is the base of every good relationship, Micah.” 

Michael snorted, moving to stand up. “Thanks. Now c’mon, Dummy. I paid your tax. My time has been served.”

Jeremy was instantly pouting again, reaching out and making grabby hands at Michael. “Taxes were raised, fucker.”

“What?! That’s outrageous! This economy is crumbling. What are we gonna do when the workers try to unionize? What if we go into a kiss recession? This government is driving its people into the ground.”

“I feel like you’re just saying words. You know nothing of the delicate inner workings of this kiss government. You absolute fool.” 

“Maybe so.” Michael grinned. “Fine. But this is all you’re getting out of me for now. The IRS will have to come get me if you try charging me any more.” He moved back over to Jeremy, leaning down to kiss him once again. 

Jeremy let out a pleased noise, mouth opening under Michael’s automatically. Michael swiped his tongue over Jeremy’s bottom lip, nipping at it gently. He earned another pleased hum in response. 

Unfortunately, their kiss was cut short by a sudden obnoxious knock on the door, Jared’s voice filtering through. “You can bang later, guys. Hurry the fuck up, would ya’?”

Michael pulled away from Jeremy and glared at the door. “We’re not- fuck off, Jare.”

“Oh, sure, you’re not,” was Jared’s loud reply. “Just get your horny asses out here. I’d come in to get you two, but I’m scared of what I might see.”

Rolling his eyes, Michael extended a hand towards the door. There was a yelp as the door swung open suddenly, and Jared stumbled into the room. Before he could fall, Michael moved Jeremy’s beanbag and slid it under Jared, who promptly collapsed on it.

“I thought we agreed to not use our powers at home,” he grumbled, but he was grinning.

“That rule gets a pass when you’re being a dick,” Jeremy said, now awake.

“Rude.”

Standing up, Jeremy stretched. “Well, I’m up now,” he said. “New lead on the drug case?”

“Yeah,” said Michael, following his boyfriend out the door. “ _ Maybe _ .”

“Maybe’s good enough. Let’s go bring Keanu to justice.”

Five minutes later, the five of them were seated at their living area, with Jared, Connor, and Evan taking the main couch, and Jeremy and Michael on the loveseat. There were five mugs of coffee, of which Jared took one and drained.

Pulling out his laptop, Jared flipped it open and started talking. “Alright. We don’t exactly have specifics, but we have enough information to put us in a considerably advantageous position. The main problem is drugs. Problem is, it’s not… really a drug.”

“You lost me at ‘alright’,” Connor said.

Jared sighed. “My sources say it’s a pill. But some say it’s a drug. Some say it’s a computer, which just doesn’t make sense. All sources agree on it being potentially harmful, especially on a large scale.”

“A computer?” Evan asked. “How would that work?”

“No idea. Best guess, they mean an implant. But how would that tie in with drugs?” Jared mused, almost to himself.

“How would it be dangerous?” Michael asked. “Not that drugs aren’t dangerous. Just- how is this different from any other drug case? Why don’t we just turn this over to the cops, give them our leads, and let them do the dirty work?”

“Well, for starters, the whole computer thing, I guess,” Jared said. “What decent cop’s going to believe you when you tell them the new Ecstasy is made out of mechanical parts and responds to zeroes and ones?”

“Are there any decent cops?” Connor muttered to himself.

“And second off, my sources say this drug isn’t addictive. It’s not, like, something you buy and snort in the back alley of a nightclub. It’s something that fucks you up when you just take one ‘hit’.” Jared paused, making a face. “I’m not making sense, am I?”

“Nope,” Michael said.

“Not really,” Jeremy admitted.

“Fuck it, I’m gonna get to the main point. Sources say this drug mind-controls.”

“And you  _ didn’t _ think to start with that?” Connor said.

“Mind-controls to whose bidding?” Jeremy asked.

“My guess is Keanu Reeves,” said Jared. “Y’know, leader of the whole shebang.”

“Keanu Reeves?” Evan asked, looking mystified.

“Long story.”

Evan blinked. “Well. Is it actually Keanu Reeves?”

“Probably not. But you never know.”

“Anyway,” Michael started. “Why are they trying to control minds? And if that's all the drug does, why are people willingly buying it?”

Jared grimaced slightly. “That’s what we need to figure out. We need to start trying to gather info from people who have actually encountered it.” 

Connor relaxed back into the couch, yawning slightly. “So we should start makin’ friends with druggies or something?”

“Well, considering there's a constant supply of weed in this house, I’m sure it’s not gonna be that hard,” Jared pointed out. 

Connor nodded idly. “Yeah, that checks out actually. I’ll talk to my people.”

Michael took a sip from his coffee, leaning into Jeremy’s side a bit. “Great. Is that all the info we have so far?” 

Jared shrugged. “Pretty much.” 

“Cool. So, bed time?”

Jared rolled his eyes. “You two better not actually be planning on fuckin’. I’m not in the mood to have to deal with hearing that.”

Michael scoffed. “Once again, you literally can’t say anything when you three go at it, like, every other night. Also, I just want to sleep, bitch. I’m tired. It’s like 4 am.”

Connor snorted. “This is sad.”

“You’re sad.” Michael got up and started to head for his room. He didn’t feel the fatigue when they were discussing the case, but now that the initial excitement had faded, he was definitely feeling the exhaustion. He could barely walk straight. “I have ten A.M. classes tomorrow,” he mumbled to himself. “ _ I’m _ sad.”

“Hope that’s not the dismal energy you bring to the bed each night,” Jared called. Connor snorted. There was a collective yell as Michael, without looking back, poured a mug of coffee on both of them, and another protesting exclamation as Jared snatched the nearest cushion and started wiping himself off with it.

“Not the cushions!” Jeremy yelped, surging forward and grabbing it. Jared just picked up the second nearest one and continued trying to get the coffee stains out of his Zelda T-shirt. Jeremy threw the cushion at his friend, and before anyone could whip out any katanas, a pillow fight broke out. 

Evan scrambled out of the chaos before any casualties occured. “You guys are hopeless.”

“No, come back.” Jared reached a hand out to Evan, but Connor shoved a pillow into his boyfriend’s face before he could reach him. Jared grunted and grabbed an excessive amount of cushions, piling them onto Connor and finally sprawling onto the pillow mountain that was his boyfriend. “Okay, now c’mere.”

Laughing, Evan stayed a good distance away. “Looks dangerous.”

“Evan,” Connor said, his voice muffled under all the pillows. “Help me. It’s gone all dark.”

“Behold,” Jeremy muttered, grinning, “The sole defenders of New York City.”

“It’s a wonder the city’s survived this long,” Jared joked. “Now c’mere Evan. If we kiss on top of Connor like this then by law he has to become a designated bottom.” 

Evan’s eyebrows furrowed even as he inched a bit closer. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m not a bottom, Jared.” Connor added. “Please free me.” 

Jared didn’t move. “That sounds like something a bottom would say.” 

Jeremy sucked his teeth from where he stood. “Yeah, I’m gonna go back to bed now. Please don’t stain our couches with any fluids.” 

“I can’t promise that.” Jared replied, earning a thump from Evan. He just laughed, pulling the boy down to join him. 

“Great.” Jeremy turned, heading back upstairs to join Michael for their previously agreed upon cuddle session. 

Connor made a noise from where he was buried. “This is how I finally die.”

Jared snorted unattractively, still not moving to get off of him. “You’ve literally been ripped in half before.” 

“And yet here I am, being murdered savagely by the two of you. You guys have done it. I’m dead now. Thanks.” 

“No problem.”

Evan thumped Jared again. “Don’t die, Connie. I can’t control Jared without you. He’ll become unstoppable.”

“As if you guys can control me now,” Jared scoffed. “I’m already unstoppable.”

“I disagree,” Evan hummed. “We’ve gotten you to do stuff before. It’s not so hard.”

“Take that back!”

“Never.”

Connor groaned. “Can we have this fun flirting session  _ not  _ on top of me? You guys are heavy.” 

Jared gasped dramatically. “Are you calling me fat?”  

“I’m in hell.”

Evan laughed, moving to pull Jared off of Connor. “I never got any welcome home kisses because I was unconscious.” He pointed out. 

Jared grinned, leaning over to peck Evan’s lips sweetly. “We certainly can’t have that. Welcome home.”

Connor finally sat up, piling up the cushions beside him. “I was with you all day but,” He gave Evan a gentle kiss much in the same way Jared had. 

“We should probably try to get some sleep sometime tonight,” Connor said after a short pause. “You both have shit to do tomorrow. I do too, but my shit’s slightly less legal.”

“Right,” Evan mumbled. “Interview druggies. Hunt down Keanu. Work double shifts. Life of excitement.”

“Programming,” Jared added. “So much programming. Communicating with normal people. So many flowcharts.”

“Get beaten up by a full list of targets,” Connor muttered. “Regrow a couple of limbs. Get paid. Repeat.”

“One of these lifestyles are not like the others,” Jared said.

Evan laughed. “You guys are dorks.”

“Yeah, but we’re your dorks.” Connor grinned. “And Jared’s more of a nerd, anyway.”

“Hey,” Jared complained, then paused. “No, that’s fair.”

“I’m gonna go sleep now, but we can continue this fascinating discussion tomorrow.” Evan stood up, stretching. “‘M tired.”

“Do you want me to carry you up?” Connor asked, only half joking.

Evan considered it. “Please do.”

Jared snorted. “Gay.”

“And you know it, babe.” Connor grabbed Evan and carried him away from the living area, bridal-style. Evan stuck his tongue out at Jared, who shot him a mock-betrayed look. 

Evan smiled at his boyfriends. Despite the stress and dangers that came with leading two lives, one as a Pottery Barn worker and one as a hero who was constantly getting shot at, at the end of the day, he was content. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gay cont. -ren  
> 'rigor mortis' is Completely Not My Fault -quinn

The next morning went the same as it generally always did. Michael and Jeremy waking up early and complaining about their classes to each other as they got ready, Evan getting up to eat some poptarts due to his being a naturally early riser, and Connor and Jared both still knocked out. Another normal day. 

Michael and Jeremy eventually left for school, leaving Evan with the house to himself until one or both or the other two woke up. He figured he may as well check the news just in case anything especially bad was happening that they would need to stop, first stopping to fix all of the couch cushions from where they’d been thrown and discarded the night before. 

He knew it it was unlikely that the other two would wake up until either their alarms went off or it was at least 2pm. Or if Evan woke them up. Which he considered. He eventually decided to let them rest, seeing as he knew neither of them were what you would call ‘morning people’.

Connor had said something the night before about having contracts, so he would probably be up around 12. Evan himself had some stuff he needed to do today, but he didn’t have to actually be anywhere until later. He briefly checked to make sure nothing life threatening was taking place on the news, but then decided to switch it over to some channel playing one of those ‘adult cartoons’. Evan never quite understood the Adult Cartoon genre, seeing as they were all exactly like normal cartoons except they looked uglier and like the swear and make sex jokes sometimes, but he watched them anyway.

Feeling bored and wanting to be slightly more productive, Evan grabbed his phone and opened up Google. Not really sure of what keywords to search, he put in ‘recent drug busts’ into the search bar. 

“Cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy,” he mumbled to himself, reading off his phone screen. “An ad for hot Russian girls wanting to meet me. Meth. Pot.”

Nothing useful. He tapped out of the site and searched up ‘mind control drug’. There was information about some kind of CIA experiment, a drug causing people to withdraw their bank savings and transferring the money to a foreign account. Nothing that seemed relevant, though.

“‘Computer mind control’,” Evan muttered, typing it in. Information about controlling computer interfaces with brainwaves popped up. “That’s the exact opposite of what I’m looking for.”

Deciding to give up on the drug lead- it seemed pointless- Evan went through his social media. There were two accounts on his Instagram app- a personal one, and an account that he shared with the rest of his flatmates, using their superhero identity fronts. Naturally, that account had way more followers than his personal.

Evan checked the joint account first. There were thirty new followers, and a few messages congratulating them on taking Scorpion down, although Evan didn’t really think it was a huge win for _him._

They didn’t post much on the account- they couldn’t really reveal much- but there were a few posts gaining likes by the minute. One was a picture of Jeremy and Michael- or, in this case, Spidey and X, sitting on top of a Times Square billboard, captioned ‘billboard boys? More like billboard morons’.

Another was a picture of Connor, fully decked out in his Deadpool gear, hanging upside down from a streetlight next to Spidey. They looked to be either arguing or just chilling, and it was captioned with a single hashtag of ‘spideypool’ and a question mark. Jared’s doing.

The final picture was a group picture, with all five of them awkwardly squished into the same frame. It wasn’t perfect- Jeremy’s mask was a blur, the bottom of it pushed up to reveal a grin, Jared holding bunny ears up behind Evan and Michael- but altogether, it was a pretty good picture, and had the most likes. The caption was ‘multiplayer mode works best’, with a small video game controller emoji next to it. 

Evan smiled to himself, remembering the day the picture had been taken. It had been right after they took down a notorious crime ring that they had been after for months. If you looked carefully, you could even see some police lights in the background. It had been a good day. 

He paused to consider making a new post to ask if anyone knew anything about these so called computer pills, but decided against it. It was probably better to keep that fact that they were looking into the matter on the down low. After all, it’s not like it would be difficult for the people behind it to find their instagram. 

He briefly considered taking a nap, but after weighing his options, he figured he may as well go ahead and get ready for the day. He’d already showered right after he’d woken up, so he just had to brush his hair and change into some jeans. He paused to glance at himself in the mirror, making sure he looked good enough before heading back downstairs once again. 

He hummed to himself, grabbing his car keys off the counter. He figured he may as well go pick up some donuts for Jared and Connor. It always put the two of them in a good mood when they woke up to find Evan with awaiting treats. He grabbed his wallet and phone from the coffee table, heading out the door. He’d be back before they woke up. 

There was a local home-run donut place a few blocks away from their place, where all of them loved to frequent- sometimes in their suits. It was a pretty well known place, with numerous photos of the owners and other customers taking photos with the heroes. Currently, there weren’t a lot of customers, so Evan felt less anxious as he pushed open the glass door and approached the counter. 

“Evan!” the owner greeted. Evan grinned sheepishly and waved back. The owner of the donut shop was a Latina woman in her mid-forties, with brown hair and an enthusiastic smile. “Back for more, huh?”

“You _know_ we can’t get enough of your donuts,” Evan said, relaxing. He knew the owner well, even if he… didn’t really know her name. “Hey, I don’t think I ever got your name…”

“Rio,” she said. She glanced up at the sign above her head- at the glowing neon letters spelling out the store’s name. _Rio’s Donuts._

“Oh!” Evan felt his face heat up. “Right! That- that makes so much more sense.”

Rio laughed. “Don’t mention it. The regulars for you, right? Red velvet, cream cheese and Oreo, and a chocolate sprinkle?”

 _Connor’s, Jared’s, and mine._ “Spot on,” Evan said.

“Coming right up.”

“Oh, can I also get an iced black tea? Easy on the ice, loads of sugar?” 

“Gotcha.” Rio retreated from the counter, heading over to the small kitchen area and grabbing a large cup, filling it up with tea, adding sugar, and finally putting in a few ice cubes. “You know, you missed the most recent hero sighting here.”

“Really?” Evan leaned onto the counter. “Who was it?”

“Well, Spider-Man for one,” Rio said, setting the iced tea down in front of Evan and heading to retrieve the donuts. “Are we sure he’s an adult? When he ordered, he sounded like he was still going through puberty. Also, he ordered a donut and chocolate milk.”

“I, uh…” Evan knew why Rio was telling him this- he’d expressed interest in the photos of himself and his friends- in their other identities- stuck to the wall, and when she’d asked him if he wanted to know any news on the heroes if they ever swung by, he’d panicked and nodded vigorously. “He might be? He can’t be, like, an old man.”

“That Electro, though,” Rio said, referring to Jared’s alter ego, “He hasn’t shown up in a while.”

 _That’s because Jared rarely leaves the house._ “I’m sure he’s just busy.”

“Mm. I hope he still likes my donuts,” Rio mused. Evan made a mental note to force Jared to get out the house more often. “Anyway, here’s your order.”

“Thanks!” Evan took the proffered bag. He slid Rio ten dollars. “Keep the change.”

“Come back more, Ev!” Rio smiled at him and waved him off cheerfully.

He walked out the donut place with a considerably more cheerful attitude and a bag full of donuts. Evan had just gotten out his phone and earbuds for some music, already two blocks away, when he heard a scream behind him.

Evan spun around, senses heightening. People were running out of a building a couple of blocks back, despite a visible lack of fire, explosion, or sewer emergency. He craned his neck a bit further- it was Rio’s. “Shit. _Shit_.”

Evan furrowed his brows- he didn’t have the foresight to bring his suit, but he could make do. It was end of October, so the weather was slightly chilly- he’d taken the liberty of wearing a black T-shirt and a scarf, with a hoodie tied around his waist.

He wrapped the scarf around his mouth and nose, obscuring most of his face- and hopefully hiding his identity. He put on the hoodie- it was actually Connor’s, but he stole it- and pulled the hood up.

“Now I look like a bomber,” Evan muttered, and dropped the donut bag next to a tree. With a quick mental command, he managed to wrap the tree roots around the bag, preventing theft. The whole process of changing and protecting his breakfast took about thirty seconds.

Evan sprinted back down the street, careful not to bump into any pedestrians. He managed to get there in a fraction of the time, pushing himself through the front doors with no hesitation. 

“Hey,” He called, looking around the shop. “What’s going on in here?” 

In front of him, the room was empty save for three figures. There were two rather large looking men behind the counter, effectively pinning a scared Rio in the corner. The men spun around at the sound of Evan’s voice, both of their faces twisted glares. Their eyes shared the same eerie blankness. 

The first on spoke up. “Nothing that concerns you, boy. You’d best be getting out of here, yeah?”

Evan straightened up slightly, quickly scanning around the room in search of anything he could use. “I think I’ll stay, actually.”

The second man sneered. “What was that? You need us to show you the door?”

Evan’s fingers twitched at his side. “No thank you. I know where it is.”

The first man practically growled at him. “You tryin’ to act tough, boy? This is your last chance. Leave.”

Evan pretended to stop and think. “Think I’ll have to pass.” 

On cue, the men both moved to start towards Evan. However, neither made it very far as the vine that had been snaking its way out of a large potted plant and around both men’s ankles tightened suddenly, halting them both in their tracks.

“What the fuck? You’re the plant one!” Both men seemed to realize it at the same time, their eyes seeming to almost light up with something Evan couldn’t quite decipher. He didn’t have a chance to respond before both men moved to reach down and free themselves. 

Evan tsked, crossing his arms. “Bad move,” He pointed out as the vines quickly snaked around the men’s wrists as well, tightening them in place and earning some rather displeased sounds from the pair. Just to be safe, Evan kept the vines going, wrapping them more in order to ensure they stayed in place despite their struggling.

“Alright, so you're trapped now. We've got time.” Evan leaned against an empty table. Noticing an untouched donut, he grabbed it and took a bite. He was hungry. “What do you say we do something to pass the time? 20 Questions?”

“You best stay out of our way, boy,” one of them growled. “Perverted hero powers or not.”

“That's an affront. I am affronted.” Evan chewed on his donut. Whenever his identity was hidden, and no one knew who he really was, his anxiety became nonexistent. Some might say he became slightly overconfident. “Okay, I'll start. Why are you attacking the best donut shop in a five mile radius?”

When neither of them answered, Evan closed his fist and in response, the vines tightened around the men, wringing out grunts of pain. “C'mon. It's not really a _hard_ question.”

“It was associated with our enemies,” the other man spat out. “We were told to lure them out and kill them.”

“Kill us? That's not very-” Evan paused. “Hang on. Told by who?”

The man seemed to realize his mistake, and stayed silent.

“Look, I know I may look unthreatening, and that might largely have to do with my suit being in the dryer, but I assure you, I can make you talk.” Evan finished off the donut and dusted the sugar powder off on his hoodie. 

The first man scoffed. “You? Of all the people in your little group? That's a good one. Give me Deadpool or X any day.”

“Now that's just mean.” Evan pointed at the man and he doubled over, as much as he could in his restraints, coughing. No- choking. Choking as Evan filled his lungs with water, and started drowning him on dry land. “And next time, remember me by my full skill set, and not just as 'the plant one’. Bitch.”

Okay, it was cruel. But Evan loved Rio's donuts, and he was pissed. Plus, he didn't have any caffeine in his system yet. He was considerably and understandably cranky.

After ten seconds of panicked watery suffocation, Evan allowed the water to recede. “I'll ask one more time. Seriously, dude. I'm not even asking for your number.”

Evan wouldn't really kill them, of course. But he'd call Connor or Michael in if the guys got really difficult. Already, he was reaching for his phone, his friends’ numbers on speed dial.

“We don't know his name.”

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard that,” Evan muttered, “I'd have 49 nickels. Which isn't a lot of money, but is still a lot of times for me to have heard that exact phrase.”

“We mean it.” The man seemed slightly desperate- and his gaze seemed clearer. Maybe they were druggies? “He wore a hoodie. White one. Gave us these weird pills. We took em. He forced us to.”

“And you just magically started listening to his command?” Evan scoffed. “That's ridiculous. What is that, like mind-”

_Oh._

“Oh,” he blurted, temporarily losing his composure. Then he came back to his sense and dialed the police, reporting an attempted mugging at Rio's, and followed the action up with a few quick texts to his friends. Finally, Evan approached the men.

“It's been great meeting you guys. Really.”

Evan looked to Rio, who was still standing, shocked, behind the counter. “It's fine now, ma'am. You can leave. Or… stay. I'm just trying to say it's clear.”

“Oh- okay,” Rio stammered. She made to leave, but then got a good look at him. Evan could see the wheels in her mind turning- piecing together the timing, the lack of a suit, the familiar clothing, the familiar voice-- “Ev-?”

“ _Every_ thing’s going to be alright, ma'am,” Evan cut in hastily, panicked, blurting things out off the top his head in an attempt to stop Rio from finishing the word.

Under the hoodie, he shot her a wink.

Three minutes, a promise from Rio that she'd take some of the pictures down, and two grumpy men being shoved into a police car later, Evan returned to the tree he'd hidden his breakfast, and pulled his hood and scarf down.

“Good morning, New York City,” he mumbled, grabbing the bag of donuts and heading back to their apartment, a spring in his step. He had breakfast and a new, glaring lead. And it wasn't even ten yet.

By the time he got home, both Jared and Connor were surprisingly already up and about, their teasing banter bouncing off the walls of their shared home. 

Evan kicked his shoes off as he walked in the door, calling out to the other two. “Jare, Con, I got donuts!”

He smiled as he heard two sets of footsteps thumping down the stairs, Jared’s voice ringing out along with them. “Our lord and savior Evan Hansen, saving the day again!”

Evan just laughed as the pair finally reached him, their dishevelled appearances making it obvious that they had only just woken up. 

He handed over the bag of food, setting his drink down on the table. They easily managed to sort out who’s donut was who’s before Jared and Connor each moved in to give Evan a kiss on the cheek in both greeting and thanks.

Evan just hummed, taking his own donut and nibbling at it a little nervously. “So,” He started, drawing his boyfriends’ attention. “I may have accidentally revealed myself to Rio the donut lady.”

There was silence.

“You _what_?!” Jared choked, coughing around him mouthful of donut. “What the fuck!”

Connor smacked him on the back to try and help his coughing, blinking in surprise. 

Evan winced, sliding his drink towards Jared sympathetically. “Yeah, uh, some stuff. Happened. But I took down two guys on my own _and_ got some info on the new drug case!” 

As Jared finally managed to get his choking under control, sipping at the tea to try and soothe his throat, Connor’s eyebrows furrowed. “At the donut shop? Why were they attacking there to begin with?”

“That's the thing,” Evan started. “I think they were trying to find info on us.”

“That sounds bad.”

“I’d say,” Jared managed, voice a bit rough. “They already know we’re looking into them?”

Evan shrugged. “I think it’s better to just assume so, yeah.”

“How’d the word get out so fast?” Connor demanded. “We literally just got briefed about this, like, five hours ago.”

Jared cursed. “My contact. She’s great at gathering information, but she might have let them leak. Especially if she’s been associated with us in the past- which she has. That’s how I met her.”

“Well, that isn’t good,” Connor said. “You know what’s good though? This donut. Think Rio will give me a discount now she knows one of the city’s protectors is my boyfriend?”

“Don’t count on it,” Evan said. “Anyway, Jared- who’s your contact? More importantly, where is she? We shouldn’t do any direct confrontations, but we should probably make sure she keeps safe- and keeps quiet.”

“Someone working at the _Bugle_ ,” Jared answered. “Something Rolan. We don’t really exchange our full names.”

“Cool, cool,” Connor said, nodding. “Okay. No confrontations. But send her a message telling her to keep quiet. Or else.”

“I’m not about to threaten my contact!”

“You’re not the one threatening her,” Evan pointed out. “Connor is.”

“If someone tells you to hold a gun to someone else’s head and forces you to pull the trigger, whose fault is it?” Jared asked. “That’s right. It’d be a group effort. Even credit. Good job, team!”

“Matters aside, what do we do about this? They’re already sending people after us- hell, they’re _targeting_ us in a pretty personal manner.” Connor finished off his donut. “We don’t even know who we’re up against.”

“Well, we can’t just sit on the sidelines and twiddle our thumbs while knitting scarves,” Jared pointed out. “We have to act. Question is, how?”

“We go find some back-alley drug dealers?” Evan proposed. “Talk with any supply guys we can reach, persuade them to tell us everything they know.”

“Yeah, that might work. As long as we don’t go to those weird potheads who hang out in the back room at Payless, I’m game,” Connor said.

“We all know you have a stick up your ass about Payless,” Jared said teasingly. “Ever since you had to fight that guy who was tripping back there.”

“Because I’m delicate, I prefer ‘bee in my bonnet’,” said Connor. “And besides, I wasn’t even putting up a fight! He was just continuously trying to bash me over the head with empty shoe boxes and yelling profanity in Japanese. I couldn’t even kill him! Or stab him!”

“Okay, I’ll text Michael and Jeremy about what happened, and tell them we’re heading to find druggies and suppliers,” Jared said. “Should we suit up?”

Evan considered it. “I’ll suit up. You and Connor seem like people who would actually be dealing with drugs and dealers. I’m way too anxious for that shit, and besides, you guys can do subtle tricks. If I start setting fires and causing earthquakes, it’d look a lot more incriminating than a sudden circuit short or a well-thrown punch.”

“Makes sense. My boyfriend is a strategic genius.” Jared leaned forward and kissed Evan on the cheek. “Alright, go suit up, hero. Connor and I will start digging up all information we know about all the happy dust.”

Connor tsked slightly as they watched Evan hop up the stairs. “Should we be offended by him saying we look like the kind of people who would be dealing with drugs anyway?” 

Jared snorted, patting Connor’s cheek. “We both know it’s true, Mr. Delicate.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re not wrong. Fine, whatevs. Do you wanna go hit up the druggies together in case something happens or do you wanna split up and try to cover more ground?” 

Jared mulled it over for a second, shrugging. “Split. It’ll be faster. Besides, I’m sure we can take care of ourselves, right?” He laughed. “Now give me a kiss before we start seeking out meth heads.”

Connor rolled his eyes, leaning forward to peck Jared’s lips.

Jared beamed happily. “Love you, Connie.”

Snorting, Connor rolled his eyes once again. “I love you too, even if you are a little bastard most of the time.”

“You _know_ that’s my brand. It’s just a way of living.”

“Mhm. Go take a shower, Bastard man.”

“Wanna join me?”

Connor quirked an eyebrow, pausing to consider. “Think we could get Evan in there too?” 

“Almost certainly.” Jared grinned.

Connor cracked a smile of his own, leaning in a big closer, eyes narrowed slightly. “What’s in it for me?”

“Cheeky handjob?”

“Don’t use the word cheeky, it’s weird. We aren’t British.” Connor hummed. “We both know I’m gonna say yes.”

Jared laughed. “Yeah. C’mon, let’s go catch Evan before he gets dressed.” He grabbed Connor’s hand, pulling him to his feet and leading him up the stairs, calling out to their other boyfriend all the while.

\------------------------

Michael sighed as he read over the text he’d just received again. “Jerm, Jared just messaged me warning that the Keanu gang is already looking for us, so we gotta be careful. Apparently the three of them are gonna go play with the drug men. Also, he sent me a pic of his hand doing the gotcha sign in the shower so I’m pretty sure they banged in there. Be wary. Don't step on anything suspicious in there.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy replied once Michael was finished. “Hate that. All of it.”

“Yeah. Should we be doing that too, though?”

“Banging in the shower? Sure, but you know how uncoordinated I am, so you’d have to top. Otherwise I would slip and fall, hitting my head on the faucet and dying instantly. Then they’d have to snap my boner off in the morgue because it would be frozen standing up from the rigor mortis.”

Michael nodded along with Jeremy’s words. “Well, I meant trying to gather more info on the case, but maybe we can look into the whole shower thing later sometime.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“You’re a real horny man, you know that?”

“Yes, I am painfully aware, thank you.”

“No problem.”

Jeremy snorted. “Ok, but really. We probably should go do some investigating to help out.”

Michael nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but we should probably do it as… not us. We aren’t exactly the intimidating types, after all.”

Jeremy nodded back. “Yeah. Let’s head home and get changed, then.”

“Whatever you say, Rigor bonis.”

“That joke wasn’t even good.”

“They can’t all be winners, Jerm.”

“Let’s go, dummy.”

“So we’re going to investigate the same things they are?” Jeremy asked. The two of them were on the streets, heading home. Their classes had just ended- they’d coordinated their schedules the best they could to sync- and they were a few blocks away from their apartment. “Do you know any dealers?”

“Uh, the dude who got me my weed supply back in highschool?” Michael asked. “He’s probably dying in a ditch somewhere at this point, though, so that’s a no-go.”

Jeremy shrugged. “Worth a shot?”

“No, I mean it. He vanished before we graduated and changed his number.”

“Well, shit.” Jeremy thought for a moment. “I’ve never bought drugs, so I think I’m out of my element. I can swing around the city to find shady people, but that seems inefficient.”

Michael snapped his fingers. “Rich.”

“No, we aren’t.”

“No, I mean my colleague from work,” Michael said. “Richard. He’s not on drugs, as far as I know, but he mentioned that he had a kind of history with them a while back. Maybe he still has some old contacts. Maybe he knows something.”

“Sounds better than running around and not really doing anything,” Jeremy said. “Do we need to wait for your shift, or can you, like, call him?”

“Yeah, I’ve got his number. But should we do this normally or as heroes?”

“That’s…” Jeremy bit his lip. “You talk to him as yourself. I’ll go as Spidey. Hopefully, Rich is a fan.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s a fan. He’s a nerd.”

“Our kind of person, then.” Jeremy grinned. “C’mon. Let’s get home, ‘shower’, and I’ll suit up. You go hit up your nerdy colleague and schedule a time for discussing drugs.”

“Sounds like a typical Thursday afternoon.” Michael nodded. “Alright.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rich and jake make an entrance....... not in the way you were thinking

A few hours later, the pair found themselves slipping in through the back door of the club Michael worked at. Jeremy, fully decked out in his mostly spandex based hero suit, made sure to keep close to Michael’s side, a large hoodie thrown on in order to keep from drawing unnecessary attention to the pair of them.

“Rich,” Michael called, scanning the back room where the employees took breaks. “You in here?”

A voice called out from just around the corner. “I’m right here, Mikey boy, don’t get your panties in a twist.” 

“Mikey boy?” Jeremy mimicked questioningly, just loud enough for Michael to hear. 

Michael just rolled his eyes, bumping Jeremy’s side. “Jealousy isn’t a good look for anyone.” He hummed. 

Before Jeremy had a chance to respond, a short yet rather well built man rounded the corner into the break room, hair spiked and a stupid easy go lucky grin on his face. 

“Hey, you didn’t say you were bringing a friend, Mike. Who’s this, then? A lover, perhaps?” Rich wiggled his eyebrows teasingly, eyeing the figure of Jeremy where he stood behind Michael. 

Michael scoffed, thumping Rich’s forehead. “Stop asking me if everyone is my lover. You know I have a boyfriend. And this guy is the reason I texted you. He needs help and I thought you might be able to, so behave, yeah?”

Rich quirked an eyebrow curiously. “What the hell are you talking about, exactly? Why would he need my help? Who is this guy?”

On cue, Jeremy finally stepped out from behind Michael, pulling his hood down and revealing his masked face. “Hi there,” He greeted. “Think you have time to help a brother out?” 

Michael elbowed his side. “Don’t be weird,” He said. 

“I wasn’t!”

“Calling yourself ‘a brother’ is weird.” 

Jeremy just tsked, turning back to Rich. “Anyway,” He resumed. “I’ve been told that you might know a thing or two about some drugs?”

Rich was staring at Jeremy, an awestruck look on his face. “Wait- you’re  _ Spider-Man. _ ”

“I’ve been called much worse,” Jeremy said. “But yep.”

“Dude!” Rich exclaimed, whaling on Michael. “I can’t fucking believe you didn’t tell me you  _ know  _ Spider-freaking-Man  _ personally _ . You  _ know _ how big of a fan I am. Traitor.”

Michael smiled sheepishly. “Whoops?”

“Oh, you are so getting it.” Rich turned back to Spidey. “Okay. Okay. Wait, what did you say?”

“Uhm,” Spider-Man said, clearly feeling awkward. “Do you… know anything about drugs?”

“Drugs?” Rich held up his hands in a surrendering action. “Hey, I’m clean. Have been, for three years, at least. Whatever it is, I’m not the guy you want.”

“No, it’s not- I’m not here to like, arrest you,” Jeremy clarified. “I just kinda need information. There’s this weird thing going on with what we think might be a kind of drug, and we have no idea where to start with it.”

“Oh,” the shorter man said, putting his arms down. “Okay.”

“So, do you know anything?” Michael asked.

“Not really. Like I said, I stepped out of that batshit years ago. But…” Rich trailed off, looking slightly apprehensive.

Jeremy stepped closer. “But…?”

“I  _ have _ been hearing news about some weird shit happening,” Rich said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “People… disappearing, personalities changing and all that stuff. Perfectly good and normal citizens starting to do crime.”

“Really?” Spider-Man grinned under the mask.  _ This was a lead they needed _ . “Do you have any names? Or numbers? I’d settle for newspaper clippings.”

Rich hummed. “I’ve mostly just been hearing second hand stories from some of my pals that never quite got out ot the life, y’know? Sometimes they try to invite me over to get fucked up but, like, I never do, obviously.”

Spider-Man nodded. “Do you know how we can reach them?”

“They sometimes hang out around the more popular dive bars. I’m sure if you told them I sent you they could hook you up with some of the… larger.. drug industries. But… maybe don’t bring a well known crime-fighter. They definitely wouldn’t appreciate that.”

Michael nodded. “Yeah, makes sense. Thanks.”

Rich waved it off, an easy smile on his lips. “No problem, dude. Now you gotta tell me. Have you been banging  one of New York’s vigilantes?”

“ _ Rich _ .” Michael groaned.

“What?! All I’m saying is I’ve never _met_ your supposed boyfriend. Who’s to say he isn’t this guy!”

Michael shot him an unimpressed look. “You’re a real piece of work, Richard.” 

“Thanks. I really try.”

Michael huffed out a breath, running a hand through his hair. “Don’t you have work to be doing?”

“Not if I don’t want to do the work,” Rich said. “You guys better get going.”

“Rich’s right,” Spidey said. “Judging from what he’s said, there’s a lot more to this case than we thought. It’s already actively successful- it’s only a matter of time before Keanu sets his mind on what he wants, and sends an army after it.”

“Keanu?” Rich asked.

“Long story.”

“Cool, cool.”

“Yeah, okay.” Michael turned and started heading for the exit. “Thanks, man!”

“Anytime, Mikey boy!” Rich yelled after him. Jeremy rolled his eyes, albeit a bit fondly, and followed after his friend, shooting a strand of web and hoisting himself into the air as soon as he was out of the club. 

They had shady bars to get to.

\-----------

“What do you mean you can’t tell us anything?” Connor demanded. “It’s not that hard. Open your mouth, vibrate your vocal cords, move your lips.”

“I mean I  _ can’t  _ tell you,” the woman said. “The guy- he has an unbelievable amount of leverage over a lot of things. If I told you, who knows what the hell he’ll do?”

Connor sighed, running a hand through his already messed up hair. He and Jared had split up to go after different individuals, but so far, they weren’t making any progress. He was dressed the part too- there were accented bags under his eyes (courtesy of makeup), and he already looked naturally shady. When the attempt to get friendly with his targets didn’t work, he’d switched to subtle threats. Then flat out desperation.

None of which worked.

“Look, this guy might be incredibly dangerous,” he started to say, but was cut off.

“Exactly! I don’t want to get hurt,” the woman slurred.

“But he might hurt a lot more people,” Connor persisted. “C’mon. All I’m asking is to know where he is, maybe a name, a location of a base,  _ some _ kind of information.”

“Find someone else t’ hook you up, man. Sorry, I’m not willing to get got just b’cause some kid is tweakin’.”

Connor grimaced. “I’m not a-” he cut himself off, sighing. “I’ll pay.” 

The woman hesitated. “...How much?” 

He stuck his hand into his jean pocket, pulling out a wad of bills. “I have Two Fifty.”

The woman just laughed, shaking her head. “No way, kid. My like ain’t worth two fifty. Go find someone else.”

Connor huffed, shoving the money back into his pocket. He turned on his heel, striding away from her with a mutter of “Thanks for nothing, then.”

He sighed to himself, pulling out his phone to send a message to Jared and Evan and tell them that he had no luck on his end. As he put his phone away again he thought about how the common denominator in their inability to get info out of people seemed to be some kind of fear of how powerful this potential drug lord was. 

It was incredibly worrying, especially considering the fact that the spreading of this so called drug seemed to happen almost overnight. Just how powerful was this guy if he had random alley meth heads fearing for their lives from just spreading information? They needed to get a solid lead and soon. Who knows what would happen if this spread to the higher ups or, god forbid, even became one of the mainstream drugs of choice. 

He hoped the other two were having better luck.

\---------

“You can’t just say ‘fuck you’ when I ask for drugs. You’re a dealer, you’re supposed to sell me drugs if i want them. This is  _ terrible _ customer service.” Jared huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Get the fuck out of here, guy.” The dealer rolled his eyes, brushing Jared off. “I’m not about to get in trouble because of you.”

“Trouble?” Jared quirked an eyebrow. “What trouble? With who?” 

“If you don’t know who then I definitely can’t help you, buddy. I think you should just go home and take a nap.”

Jared clicked his tongue. “Don’t tell me how to schedule my naps. Damn, you’re a terrible drug dealer, you know that?”

“Don’t hate the player, man.” 

“Look, is it money you’re looking for? Financial stability? A job? A girlfriend?” Jared asked. “Because I can’t help you with most of that, but I can get you a couple hundred if you slip some info about this new drug. Okay?”

“You’re new to this, aren’t you?”

“Shockingly, I am not,” Jared muttered. “I’m not new to this shit at all. In fact, you’d be surprised at how often I have to deal with this shit.”

The dealer chuckled. “Then from one old player to another, I’d offer some advice- just turn away and forget about all this. Stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“First off, who you calling old? And secondly, you’re not supposed to care about this shit! You’re a  _ drug dealer _ , since when did you guys grow common sense and morals?”

“Since a bigger player arrived and started fucking things up.”

“Look, we can protect you,” Jared said, growing slightly desperate. “We’re trying to help, help anyone who might be caught up in this shit. You can get out of all this, whatever mess you’re fucking with. I have friends-”

“We all have friends.” The dealer’s face softened. “Look, kid.”

“I am  _ twenty-” _

“I don’t know why you’re asking after this, and I hope I don’t find out,” the dealer continued, ignoring Jared. He leaned in closer, his voice lowered. “But if you really think you can help, try Payless. Back room. Find Dillinger.”

“That a name?”

The man nodded. Jared narrowed his eyes. “Why are you suddenly  _ helping _ me?”

“Because I know drugs,” the dealer said. “And whatever this new thing is, it ain’t a drug.”

He leaned back, his voice going back to normal volume. “I fuckin’ told you, I don’t  _ know  _ anything. Now fuck off before I make you.”

Jared nodded, backing out of the alley. His mind was whirling, hands slightly shaky as he typed out a text to a group chat shared with his other friends. Then he picked up his pace and headed back to their apartment. The sky was getting dark soon, and that meant there would be more opportunities to find other people with information.

\----------- 

Michael squinted at his phone, rereading Jared’s text. “Looks like he’s got _something_ , at least," he muttered.

Jeremy nodded in agreement, eyeing the street below them. When he responded, his voice was quiet so as not to give them away to the group of people lingering in the back alley they were overlooking. “We can’t hide on this fire escape forever, you know. Looks like the subject is either not important enough or too taboo for them to bring up in casual conversations.”

Michael sighed. “Yeah. So much for the eavesdropping plan.” He carefully got to his feet. “Should we just dip? Maybe we can split up. One of us might need to catch up with Jared and help him track down that lead.”

He gingerly climbed back up the fire escape ladder, careful not to make too much noise as he made his way up so that they were out of earshot. Jeremy effortlessly crawled up the wall beside him. Once they got far enough away, Jeremy hoisted the pair of them up onto a nearby rooftop.

Jeremy shrugged dismissively as their conversation resumed. “I can go find him, I guess. You’re probably gonna have better luck at these bars, anyway. Weirdly enough, people don’t tend to take a guy with the voice of a child too seriously.”

“I happen to like your voice very much, actually. Very good sound, would listen again.” Michael gave him a goofy smile. 

“Thanks, Micah, but you don’t count. You’re required to like me.” 

Michael just snorted in response. “In his text he said something about a Payless, I think. I dunno if it’s really gonna work out if you show up to a Payless all dressed up like that.” He gestured vaguely to his hero get-up.

Jeremy grimaced, looking down at himself. “Good point. Should I go change? I didn’t bring any normal clothes with me.”

“Nah,” Michael dismissed. “Just take this.” He tugged his slightly too big hoodie over his head, pulling it off and handing it over. “You always steal my jackets anyway.”

“That’s my job, Mike. You expect me to just  _ ignore _ a classic relationship trope? Absolutely not. I live for that cheesy shit.” Jeremy accepted the article of clothing, swiftly tying it around his waist for now. “What about you? Do you wanna go meet up with one of the other two? Because now that I think about it, it’s not like it’s illegal for us both to go with Jared.”

Michael chuckled. “Just can’t bear to be away from me, huh, babe?”

“Mhm.” Jeremy hummed, rolling his eyes. 

Michael thought about it. While the idea of tagging along with Jeremy to help Jared out was tempting, three might be a crowd. Besides, it’d be more efficient if Michael stayed to check out the dive bars- that way, it’d be more ground covered. “I’ll stay here. Not that I don’t want to go with you, it just makes more sense from a tactical standpoint.”

“You’re right, but I don’t like it,” Jeremy said, stretching. “Alright. I’ll go find Jare. Please don’t get yourself killed in the meantime.”

“No promises.”

“Michael!”

“Alright, fine! No dying.” Michael grinned at him. “I’d kiss you, but you’re wearing a mask, and we’re in public.”

“Damn.” Jeremy’s pout was evident in his tone. “Well, good luck with your stuff. And you’re gonna have to make up for that kiss tonight!”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Michael teased. Jeremy grinned back- under the mask- and stretched his arm out, attaching a strand of web to a distant surface and swinging off the current building. 

“So, shady guys,” he said to himself. “That’s cool. I can do that.”

Michael sighed, glancing back over the edge of the rooftop. Getting down was going to be fun.

\--------

Jared grimaced slightly, eyeing the entrance to the payless. He still wasn’t completely sure this wasn’t some kind of setup meant to get him killed. He jolted when someone suddenly bumped into his side, making him stumble slightly. “Fuck, Sorry-” He turned to apologize, but cut himself off once he realized who it was.

“Yo,” Jeremy greeted easily. “Thought you might want some backup.” 

Jared snorted, quirking an eyebrow as he looked over how Jeremy was dressed. “That hoodie is like a damn dress on you.”

“I  _ know _ right? But it’s so fuckin’ comfy. And it’s hiding my suit, So.” He shrugged. “Anyway, what’s up with payless, now?” 

“Ah,” Jared started. “I got a lead that someone in here might be able to help us. Name’s ‘Dillinger’.” 

“Is he a dealer?”

“Dunno.”

“Great. Very reassuring.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Jared snorted. “I mean, guess we’re gonna find out. C’mon. Enough stalling, I’m sleepy from being out on the town for so long.”

Jeremy frowned, glancing at the time displayed on a nearby sign. “You’ve been out for like four hours.”

“ _ Exactly.” _

“Just go inside already!”

Jared tsked, starting towards the entrance. “Fine, Jesus.”

They entered the store, looking for all the world like two bored college students. Jared went over to the cashier while Jeremy idled nearby, and raised an eyebrow at the empty counter. “Anyone home?” he called.

A boy emerged from the back, dark skinned and wearing a baseball cap. He had a tag on him that identified him as a Payless employee, and looked about the same age as Jeremy. “I wouldn't call this home, but what's up?”

Jared squinted at the tag. It read  _ Jake _ . “Uh, I'm looking for a dude with a last name called Dillinger?”

“Yeah, that's me.” Jake said. “Sup?”

Jeremy poked his head around Jared, reading the name fast. “Jake Dillinger? Alright.”

“We're looking for something… special,” Jared said, leaning on the counter. “If you get what I mean.”

“Special, huh?” Jake considered it for a moment. “Are we talking limited edition seasonal running sneakers, or something a bit more off the charts?”

“Off the charts,” Jared said. “Might be a bit pricier.”

Jake looked around the mostly empty store- there was a girl browsing through some stuff  in the front, but no one else- and nodded. “Alright. I think I know what you need. Come with me.”

The two undercover vigilantes followed Jake into the back room of the Payless store. It was surprisingly well kept (based on previous experiences), but Jeremy still kept a lookout for any suspicious activity.

“You're just in luck. My buddies dropped some new stuff off today,” Jake said as they stopped behind a rack of shoeboxes. He pulled a box out and opened it, the lid obstructing Jared and Jeremy's view of the contents. “So, what  _ are _ you looking for? Weed, coke… I got some rolls, too, if you want them.”

Jeremy and Jared exchanged looks. “Do you have anything else?” Jeremy asked. “Something more new.”

“These are about as new as you can get, bro,” said Jake. “You got a name? Maybe the name of the guy who sent you? Or, I don't know, like a order receipt?”

“We got a nameless tip from some dude that you were the guy to look for if we wanted this particular thing,” Jared said, deliberately vaguely. “You got any idea what that's about?”

“No,” Jake replied, mystified. “Maybe you've got the wrong guy.”

The two exchanged glances again. Jake didn't seem like he was lying- he seemed sincerely confused. Then again, people could lie.

“Okay, we've got slight specifics, if that helps,” Jared started. “It's dangerous, apparently. Hard to get. Comes from a weird, cloaked source. And it might have something to do with a computer.”

Jake narrowed his eyes. “You two sound more like undercover cops than actual druggies. Normal potheads are way less coherent.”

“No! Just students, we swear,” Jeremy said, laughing nervously. “Looking for our next fix, yknow? Kinda on the edge.”

Still looking vaguely suspicious, Jake shook his head. “I wish I could help, but I've got nothing that matches what you say.” But his face had changed- instead of confusion, he now looked more nervous. Like he was hiding something.

Jared decided to take a risk. “Can we check inside the box? Maybe we can find it.”

This seemed to raise a red alarm for Jake. “This is kinda off-limits,” he said slowly. “Maybe you guys should leave. Before anything bad happens.”

“Is that a threat?” Jeremy asked innocently. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, where he kept his web-shooters. With a few careful, subtle maneuvers, he slipped them back onto his wrists. Better to be safe than sorry.

“No,” Jake replied. “It’s a warning. Seriously. Whoever you are, it’s not worth it to meddle, not right now.”

“We’ll take that chance,” Jared said. “Let us see the box.”

Jake bolted. 

Jared and Jeremy were on him in an instant, but the other had more knowledge of the layout of the room. Jake pushed a cabinet over, effectively blocking Jared’s way- but not Jeremy, who leaped up to the ceiling and ran, upside down, over the obstacle and flipped back onto the ground. 

“Show-off,” Jared muttered. He clambered over the fallen cabinet awkwardly, but spotted a light switch nearby.  _ Perfect. _

As Jeremy gained on Jake, who was clutching the shoebox, Jared lunged for the switch and placed his palm over it, sensing a layout of wires and circuits underneath the plastic. He sent out a strong pulse of electric energy into the wires, creating a short circuit in the system and successfully cutting off all the electricity connected to the circuit. The room was plunged into darkness, and there was a resounding yell from Jake as he ran into a wall.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jake groaned. “Jesus, fine! If you two will cut this shit out I’ll help you! Fuck!” He huffed. “I am _not_  getting paid enough for this.”

Jeremy tsked from somewhere near Jake. “You couldn’t have just done it to begin with?”

“I still think you’re cops. But if you promise not to arrest me, y’know. I guess I’ll help?” Jake sighed. “I’m just so tired. Working at a payless sucks absolute ass.”

“That’s rough, buddy.” Jared called. “If I turn the lights back on are you gonna run again?”

“No, I fucked my ankle when I ran into the goddamn wall.”

Jared winced slightly in sympathy. “Great.” He put his hand back over the switch and seconds later the room was once again lit up. 

Jake was leaning against a wall, shoebox discarded to the side. He grimaced up at Jeremy. “Swear you aren’t gonna arrest me?”

Jeremy blinked. “Uh, yeah. Promise.”

Jake hummed. “I’m gonna be killed for this, probably.” 

Jared shook his head, making his way over to the other two. “Nah. We’ll keep things on the down low. You’ll be safe.” 

“I doubt it, but who cares. Anything is better than minimum wage.” Jake carefully grabbed the box. “How much do you actually know about these things?”

“Uh.” Jared and Jeremy shared a look. “Not much.”

“You two are gonna fuckin’ die.”

“Thanks.”

Jake handed Jared the box, and stepped away, eyeing them suspiciously. Jared flipped the cover of the box open, finding baggies of green nuggets, a minimal amount of white powder, and a few pre-rolled joints. 

Jeremy peered into the box. “That’s a whole lot of… nothing.”

Jared couldn’t help but agree. He tilted the box, watching the joints roll and bags slide around. “Yeah. A lot of nothing.”

He trailed off as he noticed something- something small in the corner of the box, being jostled around with the movements. “Hang on.”

Jared picked it up- it was a pill, tinted gray, with no visible oddities or tells. But it seemed off. He turned to Jake. “The hell’s this?”

Jake had paled. “Nothing,” he tried. 

“Yeah, and I’m the king of Belgium,” Jeremy snapped. “Just tell us, man.”

“I can’t,” Jake said, sincerely.

“You can and you will,” said Jared. “If you don’t, we’ll bust you for the drugs in here. Weed isn’t that bad, but cocaine probably won’t go over well with the authorities.”

Jake ground his teeth in frustration. “Fuck, dude, look, I don’t know much. I know it’s dangerous. I know it’s some kinda computer-related freaky shit. I know there’s a guy behind all this, and they’re not to be fucked with. That’s it. Okay?”

“That actually sounds like a fair amount of information,” Jeremy said. “How does a minimum wage Payless employee get wrapped up in all this shit?”

“What other reason could there be?” Jake said, his tone complaining and pissed. “I made bad choices in the past and got mixed up with the wrong people. My life was ten levels of fucked. Then this dude showed up, said he had a way to help me- only if I helped him.”

“Who was he?” Jared asked.

“Couldn't tell. Still can’t. Wore a white hoodie, face covered, voice distorted and freakily mechanical.”

“And who buys this?” Jared held up the pill between two fingers. “Who the hell buys a freaky gray oblong pill from a random stockboy in the back of Payless?”

Jake shrugged. “People who want all their problems solved.”

Jared whistled lowly. “That does sound like quite the deal. One pill and everything is fixed? Damn.” He looked back to Jake. “Have you taken one?”

Jake shook his head, holding his hands up in surrender. “No way, man. I can’t afford that shit.”

“How much is it?” 

“Four hundred. Way too much for some freaky computer high, in my opinion.”

Jeremy tsked. “You only have the one? Can you give us the names of anyone who’s bought one?”

Jake scoffed, shaking his head. “I’m no snitch, dude. Sorry.”

Jared sighed, taking the pill from Jeremy and pocketing it. “We’re, uh, confiscating this.” 

“Hey! That’s four hundred bucks, dude! You can’t just  _ take _ it!”

Jared hummed. “I mean, we definitely  _ could _ , but I do feel kinda bad. Here.” He pulled out a wad of bills from his pocket. “It’s, like, three hundred.”

“That’s a hundred short!”

“Yeah, but it’s better than nothing.” 

Jake grumbled under his breath, grimacing. “I guess.”

Jeremy looked back down at the box. “You never answered before. Do you have any more?”

“No, especially not when you’re already a hundred short!”

Jeremy passed the box back. “Fine, I guess. We might come back if we have any more questions for you.”

“Whatever.”

The two turned to go, but Jeremy paused before leaving. He faced Jake again, hesitant to just leave him there- after all, Jake wasn’t a bad person. He just had no choice but to take whatever offer he could get to get out of the mess he’d been in. 

And besides, if they just left Jake, who knew what the mystery guy behind the scenes would do to him? 

“Jake,” Jeremy said. “Look. Go get a better job, cut off all contact with the guy. Keep a low profile. Keep safe. There’s this donut place a few blocks away from 50th, great place, great owner. I’m not sure what the pay’s going to look like, but it’s going to be a better job than a Payless cashier.”

Besides, if Jake went and helped Rio out, that meant the squad could keep a closer eye on him- not just to make sure he didn’t try to pull anything stupid, but also to ensure his safety. Anyway, Rio could use some extra help.

“We’ll put in a good word for you,” Jared said, somewhat reluctantly, but he’d caught onto Jeremy’s trail of thought. “It’s for the best, man. Also, amazing donuts. Employee discount’s gonna rock.”

Jake looked dubious, but he was similarly worried about himself. Besides, donuts sounded great. “Okay,” he said slowly. “I hate this job, anyway.”

Jared grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

“Wait,” Jake blurted, before they could go. He pointed at Jeremy. “You- you were running on the ceiling. And you-” He pointed at Jared. “- fried the electrical circuits, and managed to get them back up and running.”

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “Your point?”

“Are you…” Jake seemed sheepish. “You know. Them. The hero dudes hanging around Manhattan and Queens. Not to say they’re all definitely dudes. You get what I mean, right?”

Jared shrugged. “What, you got something against them?”

“God, no,” Jake said earnestly, holding his hands up in a neutral gesture. “I owe them my life. Well, not my life. My sister’s. But… kind of the same meaning, you know?”

Nodding, Jeremy smiled. “Yeah. They’re cool people, aren’t they?”

Jake brightened. “You bet, bro.”

The two undercover vigilantes walked out the Payless with a considerably more cheerful attitude, a supposed computer drug in the shape of a small boring gray Tic-Tac, and the biggest lead they’ve gotten so far.

All in all, a not so heinous day.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we got a long 'foreshadowing' one for u fellas -quinn

It was already fairly late by the time everyone got back home. Evan and Connor were the first to return. They were sulking together on the couch, bitter about the lack of info they had managed to get out of people when Michael arrived home as well.

“I can’t believe they just ignored me like that. Like, they acted like I wasn't even there! How rude!” Evan tsked, leaning into Connor’s shoulder more.

Connor nodded understandingly. “An elderly woman in an alley called me a little bitch.”

Michael chimed in from where he was turning the corner into the room. “That’s probably the saddest thing I’ve heard all day.”

Connor hummed, idly running his fingers through Evan’s hair. “Maybe so. I liked her, she seemed… nice.”

Evan turned slightly to shoot his boyfriend a look. “How is calling you a ‘little bitch’ nice?”

“She’s my role model now, Evan.”

“That doesn’t answer my question at all.”

Michael cut in. “Are the other two back yet? I wanna know if their lead paid off.” 

Connor shook his head. “Not yet, but I think they're on their way. Jared sent a video of him tripping Jeremy as he was trying to sit down in a subway car, so.”

Michael tsked. “He’s really gotta stop doing that.”

“Don’t worry,” Evan hummed. “The subway car looked empty other than them, so it didn’t embarrass him too bad, probably.”

“Great.” Michael collapsed down onto the loveseat, kicking off his shoes. “He’s a real charmer, that one.”

“Yeah, we know he’s a dumb fuck, don’t worry.” Connor waved it off. “At least he isn’t harassing strangers.”

“I mean. He probably shouldn’t be harassing <i>anyone</i>, y’know?”

“Eh.”

Michael just let out a sigh. “Very reassuring.”

“Did you get any info out of anyone?” Evan asked Michael, who shrugged.

“Maybe,” he replied. “Mostly it was just stoners and rich druggies, but there were a few people that seemed suspicious. It was like- they weren’t exactly full on being controlled, but they seemed sluggish, sometimes looking surprised at their own actions.”

“That sounds like me during high school,” Connor muttered.

“That’s a valid point,” Michael agreed. “Okay. I’m not sure about suspicious activity anymore. Let’s just see what Jere and Jare has.”

“Jere and Jare,” Evan said under his breath. “Jare and Jere. Say that really fast ten times.”

As if on cue, the door to their apartment swung open, and Jeremy stumbled into the living room. “Jared Kleinman, if you do that again I swear to  _ god _ I will web you up and dangle you from the Empire State Building.”

“Kinky.” Jared followed, stepping into the apartment and flicking Jeremy’s forehead. There was an audible  _ snap _ as he sent a small burst of static electricity along with the contact, and Jeremy yelped.

“Alright, that’s it,” he started to say, advancing towards a slowly-backing-up Jared, who had a shit-eating grin on his face. As the two circled each other, their respective best friends and boyfriends watched from the couch.

“They’re fighting,” Connor observed in a bored voice.

“Unbelievable,” Evan said in a similarly monotoned manner.

“Boys,” Michael called half-heartedly, “stop fighting.”

Jeremy grumbled, and started to turn towards his boyfriend, but just as Jared let his guard down, Jeremy swung back around and fired off a quick succession of webs, attaching Jared’s hand to the wall.

“Hey!” Jared complained. 

“You deserve that.” Jeremy plopped down on the couch next to Michael. “It’ll dissolve in two hours.”

“Two  _ hours?”  _ Tsking, Jared gave a tug at the sticky chemical substance securing him to the surface. “No. No, no, no. Get me out of this. Right now.”

“No,” said Jeremy, clearly enjoying his friend’s distress. “You’re a dick. So you’re staying there.”

“Says the bottom,” Jared grumbled.

“One more word,” Jeremy said, “and I will good-to-honest web you to the ceiling at some child’s birthday party with a note calling you a piñata. Along with a baseball bat.”

Jared mock-gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“So, how about that lead?” Michael said loudly, cutting into the argument. As entertaining as it was to see the two of them acting petty, they had a drug case to solve. “Any finds?”

Jared just grunted, tugging at his arm. “I refuse to talk about it until I am released from this unjust imprisonment.”

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “We got one of the pills.”

“Wh- Really? That seems, like, a pretty fuckin’ good find.” Michael sat up a bit straighter. 

Jeremy nodded in confirmation. “We only got one, but hopefully we can actually get somewhere if we examine it and shit, right?”

Connor nodded from the couch, idly watching Jared struggle to try and free himself. “It’s definitely progress, at least.”

Evan hummed. “Thank god. This thing is spreading  _ way _ too fast for my comfort. We need to get to the bottom of it and stop it before it gets any worse.”

“Right,” Michael agreed. “This thing practically didn't exist like three days ago and now its taken over practically every drug involved citizen. Definitely bad news.”

Connor snorted, attention more focused on Jared than the conversation. “It’s kinda sad how you’re a hero and yet still so weak. You really just can't get out of that, huh?”

Jared grimaced, tugging a little harder in an attempt to free himself. “God damn it.” he huffed, finally giving up. “Jeremy. This is torture. You’re killing me.”

Jeremy didn’t even look up, happily cuddling up to Michael’s side. “You should’ve thought about that before acting like a little bitch then, huh?”

Connor laughed properly at that. “He’s got you there, Jare. You are a little bitch.” 

“Hey,” Jared tsked. “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side? I’m the one who sucks your dick!”

Connor just shrugged. “You say that like you don’t enjoy it.”

“My enjoyment of dick sucking is completely irrelevant! Get my unstuck from this damn wall.”

“No way, sorry. You did the crime, you do the time. The only one who can let you go is Jeremy.”

Said Spidey flashed Jared a wink. “Don’t feel bad. I developed these webs to be basically unbreakable. They’re sticky, flexible, strong as steel. Even if you did work out, that wouldn’t help.”

“I can’t decide if you’re comforting me or insulting me,” Jared said incredulously. He sighed, curling a hand around a segment of the web.

“If you’re thinking of frying it, don’t,” Jeremy advised. “I’ve been working on some modifications to them, so they work better with all our powers combined. These channel electricity.”

“So, I’ll fry myself,” Jared muttered. “Wonderful. Do we have a safeword?”

Connor rolled his eyes and slipped a dagger free from where it was discreetly strapped to his leg. With a swift sharp move, he sent it flying towards his boyfriend, the blade going directly into the hard plaster where the webs connected to the wall. Jared yelped, but took the knife, and started working himself free. “Next time, maybe just  _ give _ me the knife?”

“I'm too lazy to do that,” Connor said.

“We have  _ powers _ . Michael could've floated it over,” Jared grumbled, finally freeing himself from the webs. He went over to Evan and collapsed, half on the couch and half on his boyfriend.

“Anyway, you guys got the pill?” Michael asked, anxious to pull the conversation back on track.

“Yeah,” Jared replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small oblong shaped object. “Doesn't look like much.” He tossed it to Michael.

Holding it up, Michael frowned at the pill. “It looks like a Tic-Tac.”

“It might be a Tic-Tac,” Evan acknowledged. “We may have gotten pranked.”

“No, Jake was genuinely panicked,” Jeremy said.

“Could've been good acting.”

“Wait,” Michael said. He took out his phone and snapped a clear picture of the pill, then gave the pill to Connor for further examination. Then he handed his phone to Jared. “Could you enhance the picture?”

“I'm a software engineer, not a Photoshop expert, but yeah, definitely.” Jared grabbed his laptop and transferred the photo over to his computer, dragging the file into Photoshop. “Give me five minutes.”

“I've got someone who can hook us up with NSA spy software if we need it,” Connor said. He eyed the pill. “This shit's tiny. I can barely make out the crack in the middle.”

“Should we open it?” Jeremy asked.

“It's a better alternative to eating it,” Evan said.

“Gotcha!” Jared turned his screen over to face his friends. “I sharpened it and brightened it, then highlighted the contrast. If you look closer…”

Jeremy leaned forward. “Circuit boarding,” he murmured, observing the picture. There were visible lines and indents in the enhanced image, lining the pill and connecting with each other. He took the pill from Connor and rubbed his finger over it- sure enough, there were detectable bumps in the surface. “That means…”

“The whole thing is a computer,” Jared confirmed. “So we can't break it open without effectively rendering it useless.”

Jeremy grimaced, squinting at it. “Well, there goes that idea.” He sighed.

Michael hummed, running a hand through his hair. “Looks to me like Jared is gonna have to dissect that thing as best he can without fucking it completely.”

Jared nodded in agreement. “I can probably get some more info of the tech if I try really hard. I definitely can’t open it safely without knowing the inside, though. “

“Great,” Connor started. “That’s better than nothing, though, right?” 

“Hopefully.”

Evan stifled a yawn. “All this drama really tires you out, huh?” 

“God, yeah,” Jared agreed. “I’m exhausted. Field work? Not my cup of tea.” 

“I think there are probably some more factors to your fatigue from today, but yeah.” Connor hummed. “We should probably get some rest soon.”

Michael snorted, not moving. “Let's all just sleep in piles on the couches to show how sad we are.”

Jeremy shot him a look, pouting. “You know I have back problems.”

“Aw,” Michael cooed, rubbing Jeremy’s back sympathetically  with one hand. “I’ll give you a massage later, babe. I was kidding.”

“Disgusting,” Jared droned, plucking the pill out of Jeremy’s grasp. “Go on, then. Get out of here and go do your weird pornhub massage session in private, yeah?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “You  _ know  _ you can’t say anything about me and Jerm when you act the way you do. You three fuck like twice a day.”

Jared just tsked. “Let me be a hypocrite in peace.” 

“Why do our sex lives always get mentioned whenever we try to crack a case together?” Evan complained. “We’re supposed to be saving cities, not saving our teenage libidos.”

“Save it for the weekly fivesomes,” Jared teased.

Evan’s mouth dropped open. “We do  _ not _ have-”

“Shut up, Jared,” Connor said, his tone joking. “Although, imagine the fanfictions about said weekly fivesomes.”

“ _ Fanfictions _ ?” Jeremy echoed disbelievingly. “I can’t believe I’m hearing all this.”

“Did you not  _ know _ people write fanfictions about us?”

“No?”

“Oh, god.” Connor pulled out his phone. “It’s fucking ridiculous. Some of these are actually really good, though.”

“I really don’t know if I should ask this,” Michael said, “But I’m gonna do it anyway. Slash fiction?”

“An insane amount,” Connor reported, scrolling through a website. “Again, fucking ridiculous. If the writers knew we were talking about this, how fucking meta would that be?”

Jared blinked. “The writers? What writers?”

“‘Meta’?” Evan added.

Connor only smirked to himself as he forwarded a few links to their shared group chat. “Have fun jerking off to this at night.”

“Jerking off to what?” Evan checked the group chat and visibly reddened as he read the titles of the forwarded links. “Oh, god.”

“‘Web kinks’?” Jeremy demanded, staring at his own phone. “Fuckin- ‘ _ web kink’? _ ”

“Valid,” Michael said. “Do they just use our hero names? Like, isn’t that weird? Imagine moaning ‘Spidey’ during sex.”

“How did we get to this topic?” Evan asked himself. “How did we get here?”

“No, they used made-up names,” Connor replied, ignoring his boyfriend’s distress. “Jere’s this dude called Peter. Michael’s called Xander, probably because it starts with ‘X’ and doesn’t end with ‘avier’. Also, apparently we’re all hot, gay, and incredibly kinky.”

“They’re more on point than I’d guess,” Jared said, looking through the links. “Although they keep writing me with X-Man there.”

“Feel proud of yourself,” Michael replied.

“Should we be talking about this right now?” Jeremy asked. “I enjoy fanfictions written about me under a different name as much as the other guy, and I hate to be  _ that  _ fun-killer, but obtaining this pill might mean that chances of danger are getting way, way higher.”

“Jeremy’s right,” Evan said, setting his phone down. “I mean, think about it. Someone sent two people under clear orders to kill after us, even before we got actual leads and details on this whole thing. This same guy also seems to have a certain considerable amount of control and leverage over most of the drug dealers in New York.”

“Right,” Connor said. “Everyone I asked either took off running, aggressively told me to fuck off, or warned me against it. When a dealer starts warning you against certain life choices, that’s when you know it’s bad.”

“So we need a plan,” Michael said. “Right?”

“We can’t plan against something we don’t know,” argued Jared. “And we don’t know shit. Who the guy behind all this is, how this pill works, what the guy’s end goal is…”

“We can’t plan,” Jeremy agreed. “Frankly, we can’t do shit.”

“Safety procedures,” Michael blurted. “Heighten safety procedures. Clearly, they know we’re planning on going after them. They don’t know  _ who _ we are yet, and we need to keep it that way.”

“With all the fucking up we’ve done, I’m surprised no one’s figured out who we actually are,” Jared said. “We’re just three coffees away from Jere accidentally saying ‘I’m Jeremy-Man’.”

“We can’t take days off classes,” Jeremy said, looking at Michael, “and you guys can’t exactly stop going outside, either. So we need to take extra measures to hide who we are.”

“I can stop going outside.” Jared argued. “No problem.”

Evan tsked, thumping Jared on the side of his head. “Bad. You have to start getting out more. Be healthy.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Too bad. I’m gonna start taking you with me when I go out on walks.”

Jared groaned. “Sounds not fun.”

Connor just rolled his eyes, pushing Evan and Jared off of him so he could get to his feet. “You two can argue about this later. Let’s eat or something. I’m hungry.”

“You’re almost always hungry,” Evan pointed out. “How are you still so damn thin?”

Connor smirked, flipping his hair back dramatically. “Gotta maintain my hot physique for my two boyfriends.”

Michael rubbed his eyes tiredly. “That’s pretty gay, buddy.” 

“Also very appreciated,” Jared chimed in. “Lean, yet an ass that never quits. Very good for the eyes.” 

Connor hummed,  leaning down to kiss Jared’s “Thanks, babe.”

Jeremy scrunched up his nose. “PDA, guys.” 

“Oh, that’s nothing. If you want some  _ real  _ PDA-”

Jeremy squeaked, waving his hands in an attempt to cut Jared’s sentence off. “No thanks, actually! We’re ok!”

Jared laughed, giving a faux pout. “That’s a real shame.”

“I’m sure it is.” Jeremy sighed. “Can we all just agree to be more careful in public and go to bed?”

“Agreed,” Evan said immediately, before Jared could make another sex joke. “Do we need, like, ground rules for this?”

“Uh, no changing in or out of your suit in public,” Michael said. “Like, no whipping off your outer clothes in public. Find a dark alleyway and stash your shit securely. We can’t afford anyone seeing us.”

“Sounds like what an undercover stripper would say,” Connor commented. Jeremy threw a pillow at him.

“One of us gets our identity leaked, it’s pretty much over,” Jared agreed. “Although, there’s a few ways that we can hide our info more.”

“Yeah?” Michael looked at him.

“Yeah. I hack the public records, build a firewall that also acts as a distraction over our personal info files. Wrap it under fake names and fake addresses, double the security.”

Jeremy blinked. Jared’s constant immature jokes and casually uncaring facade made it easy to underestimate him- made it hard to remember that he was actually considerably smart, a vigilante genius if there ever was one. “Jesus.”

“Actually, it’s Jared, but I’ve been told the resemblance is shocking.” Jared grinned at him. “Your name is totally going under ‘Peter Parker’, by the way.”

“Peter- what? Why?” Jeremy furrowed his brows.

Jared shrugged. “I don’t know. It felt right.”

Connor sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “Just one chapter without any damage to the fourth wall. That’s all I ask.”

“Who are you talking to?” Evan asked. 

“Not Stan Lee, that’s who. Rest in peace, by the way.”

“Stanley?” Michael asked. “Great. Connor’s gone and taken the wrong meds.”

“Very funny.” Connor continued staring at the ceiling. “Also, the fact that you guys made that bullshit up about the whole pill being a computer is just lazy plot writing. We all know the lyric is ‘the quantum computer  _ in _ the pill’-”

“Alright, we’re going to sleep now,” Evan announced, standing up and dragging Connor behind him, beelining for their bedroom, Jared following behind. “Hopefully, if we turn it off and back on again, he’ll be fixed.”

“You’ll always turn me on, babe,” Connor said from where he was being dragged along the floor.

“Great.” Michael grimaced, watching them go. “Well. That was sufficiently strange. So glad that conversation happened.”

Jeremy nodded, scratching the back of his head. “What day is it today? I can’t remember if I have morning classes or not.”

“You do.”

Jeremy groaned in annoyance. “I fucking hate morning class. College is so stressful. Literally worse than fighting supervillains.” 

Michael laughed, ruffling Jeremy's hair teasingly. “Bold claim, Jeremiah.”

“It’s true and you know it.”

“Maybe so. Either way, we should get to bed if we don’t wanna sleep in.”

Jeremy huffed.  “Fine, but I don’t like it.” 

Michael smiled, patting his back. “Will a kiss help?”

“Of  _ course _ a kiss would help.,” Jeremy tsked. “When wouldn’t it?”

“That’s- Sure. Whatever you say, Buddy.” Michael leaned down to give his boyfriend a soft kiss, pulling away with a smile. 

“Thanks. Very good.”

Michael laughed again, louder than before. “Glad it was satisfactory.”

Jeremy just nodded, pecking Michael’s cheek. “We need more boyfriend time. Y’know, just time to chill together while not fighting bad guys or walking to classes.” He blinked. “We need dates.”

Michael nodded. “I agree. After all this Keanu shit is settled we should plan some hot dates.”

“Love you, Micah.” 

“I love you too, Jerm.”

Jeremy hummed, doing his best to stifle a yawn. “I hate to say it, but we should go to bed.”

Snorting, Michael shot him a look. “You think?”

“Hush. C’mon.” Jeremy finally got to his feet, pulling Michael with him as he headed up the stairs.

\--------------day uhhhh 3? I think?

By the time Jared woke up, Michael, Jeremy, and Connor had all already left. Michael and Jeremy had class, of course, and Connor had apparently said something about catching up on some contracts. Which left Evan and Jared to go about their business. 

Jared had quickly gotten busy trying to get some info by researching the tech on the pill, Evan hanging around for a bit while he waited for it to get closer to his shift at the Pottery Barn. The day felt ridiculously domestic- no bad guys, no murders, just Jared and his boyfriend, home alone.

That is, discounting the mind-controlling computer pill.

“Alright, you little fucker,” Jared muttered, holding the pill up to eye-level and peering at it. “We’re cracking you one way or another.”

Jared’s power, job, and passion, all revolved around the concept of electricity- being able to control the intensity and flow of it, and to program it to do something. His powers were exceptional, and with the help of his suit- which consisted of nothing but a pair of black gloves, a dark blue hoodie with a custom-designed insignia on the back, and a mask that he’d pull up to cover his mouth and nose- would be enhanced to further help him in both fighting and manipulating electrical flows.

He pulled on his gloves now. The fabric was specially made by a contractor who’d long vanished off the Earth, capable of conducting electricity of a great voltage but also designed to be able to lead delicate charges into a target. Jared picked the pill up and sent a gentle electrical jolt through the small object, probing for information.

Another great thing about his ability was that not only was it a channel for electricity, it also was a way to quote-on-quote “communicate with” and control small-scale electronic devices- and this was about as small as they got. 

A second later, Jared’s probe was rewarded with a small ping of feedback- jumbles of technical nonsense that he couldn’t decrypt, and a tiny, tiny list of barely decipherable information. 

_ SQUIPVERS3.1.0 _ __  
_ SIGNAL:LOST _ _  
_ __ TARGETUNACQUIRED

Jared grabbed a notepad and a pen, jotting down what he could. “S-Q-U-I-P, version 3.1.0,” he muttered to himself. “We’re being plagued by mechanical seafood.”

_ Signal: Lost _ . Evidently, the computer inside- or that  _ was- _ the pill was currently dormant, which meant that it required a boot-up. The question was, Jared mused, was the booting up manual or automatic?

If it were manual, that meant it’d be highly inefficient. The seller would have had to activate each and every pill by hand, which would mean their market was small and confined. Additionally, it’d be far easier to trace.

But if it were automatic… Jared considered it. It’d be a detected activation, the computer coming to life when it received its signal. But if the pill were  _ inside  _ a human body then, what would there be to signal it? Stomach acid would risk damaging the computer. Blood? Saliva?

Jared wrote his thoughts down in a hastily scrawled script, tapping his pen thoughtfully against the counter. He could always try using a larger voltage to examine the computer, but that would mean to risk damaging whatever internal components it had.

Before he could do anything further, the door to his room was pushed open carefully. 

“Connor’s home, Jare. And I made us lunch, if you’re hungry.” A smiling Evan informed him. 

Jared automatically smiled back. “Oh, he finished his stuff super early, huh?”

Evan laughed, nodding in agreement. “I think he was trying harder than usual so he could get home before my shift.” 

Jared snorted, smile softening. “He’s a big dumbass.” 

“Who’re you calling a dumbass?” Connor hummed, appearing behind Evan.

Jared laughed, carefully setting the pill down on his desk. “You.” 

Connor tsked, even as he wrapped his arms around Evan’s waist from behind, resting his chin on the shorter boy’s shoulder. “How rude. I don’t even get a welcome home kiss?”

Jared smiled dopily, getting up from his chair and striding over to the pair of them. Evan automatically opened his arms in invitation, which Jared stepped into happily. He brought one arm down to rest on Evan’s waist on top of Connor’s while his other hand moved up to loosely run through Connor’s hair.

“You haven’t brushed your hair at all today, have you?” It was more of a statement than a question as Jared’s fingers worked through a couple knots, careful not to hurt him. 

“If I did then I would miss out on you doing this.” 

Jared softened, leaning over to kiss Connor sweetly. He smiled as he pulled away. “You always have been such a charmer, Con.”

Evan hummed from in between them, leaning back a little farther into Connor’s chest as he pulled Jared closer to the both of them. “I like being in the middle like this. It’s warm.” 

Connor cooed, pressing a kiss to the side of Evan’s head. “I love you guys.” 

Jared kissed him again in response, a bit longer this time. He did the same to Evan after pulling away. “Love you too.”

Evan turned to kiss Connor’s cheek as best he could from the odd angle he was at. “Me too.” 

“God, we’re so gay,” Connor laughed. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“We really are,” Jared agreed.

“Bi!” Evan piped up, but a grin was plastered on his face. 

“So, did you get any new info out of that?” Connor asked, jerking his chin towards the discarded pill. 

“Some,” Jared said, pulling a face towards it. “It’s a computer, alright. There’s some kinda activation process that I still don’t get yet, and I don’t really wanna risk frying all the internal circuits, so I’m just putting it aside for the time being.”

“You mean you’re procrastinating.”

“You make it sound so unsexy,” Jared sighed. “I do have to get back to it eventually…”

“No,” Evan said. His boyfriends turned to look at him, and he blushed, but pushed on.  “We’re taking a few hours for ourselves. No hero work, no freaky computer drugs, no near death experiences. Just boyfriend time.”

“Just boyfriend time sounds amazing,” Connor agreed.

“Does that mean…” Jared wiggled his eyebrows at Connor, who sighed. 

“Yes, Jare. We can fuck.”

“Crude yet effective,” the hacker said. “You really gotta work on your dirty talk, Murphy.”

“Can we move this to the bedroom?” Evan asked.

Jared ruffled his hair. “Getting impatient, huh?”

“I need to spend soft gay times with my boyfriends before I go back to Pottery Barn and start scolding kids for breakdancing in the vase sections.” Evan sighed dramatically. “It’s the 21st century equivalent of ‘get off my lawn, you whippersnapper’.”

“Bedroom it is,” said Connor, before he scooped up Evan in one fluid movement and headed for their shared bedroom. Jared followed behind, complaining playfully.

“Why is it Evan who’s always being carried?” he whined.

“He’s the bottom, Jared,” Connor said, not looking back.

“I’m a switch! I feel like I deserve  _ some  _ attention,” Jared griped.

“The hard life of a top.” Connor’s tone was completely monotonous.

“No pun intended,” Evan said, laughing.

Jared snorted unattractively, slipping around Connor to push the door open for them. “Nice.”

Connor chuckled as well, moving into the room and carefully setting Evan down on the bed. Before he could move to sit down as well, Jared closed in on him, pulling him into a deep kiss. 

Evan hummed, moving to push some of the extra pillows off of the bed so that they were out of the way.

Jared’s fingers tangled in Connor’s hair, tugging lightly as he pulled away. “You’re gay.”

Connor laughed, grinning dumbly. “God yeah.”

Jared laughed along with him, pulling him down to join Evan on the bed.

\---

“Ah, shit,” Evan swore suddenly, tsking to himself. “The lunch I made is  _ definitely  _ cold by now.” He pouted.

“We literally just got done having sex like ten minutes ago and you’re already thinking about food. Tragic.” Jared moved himself closer to Evan, consequently pressing the both of them closer to Connor. 

Connor, in turn, wrapped his arm around their waists as best he could, pulling them as close as possible. “We have a microwave. I’m sure it’s fine, babe.”

Jared nodded. “At least you didn’t leave the oven on and set the house on fire.” 

Evan hummed, still grimacing slightly. “I guess.” He glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. “I have work in a few hours. That means I can’t take a nap either or I’ll almost definitely sleep through my shift.”

“That sounds like their problem.” Jared pressed a kiss to Evan’s cheek. “It’s post-fuck cuddle time now.”

“I’m gonna get fired.”

“Again, that sounds like their problem. Just means more time for this.” 

“We have to pay rent,” Evan said, but he sounded like he was giving in.

“Murdering people helps pay all the bills,” Connor argued.

“Connor! What did we say about talking about murdering people in the bedroom?” Jared scolded.

“Thought you liked it rough,” the mercenary teased.

“Not rough as in, like,  _ murder _ rough!”

“I don’t know. Snuff fantasies exist, don’t they?”

Evan threw a pillow at both of them. “No killing people.”

“Too late,” his boyfriends said in unison. Evan sighed. Life as a vigilante meant that they all had their close run-ins or personal meet-ups with death. Connor, by far, had the most kill counts going under his tally, which also made him the most feared and morally shady one of the group- despite only accepting contracts to kill people who were corrupted and hurt more innocents than they left alone.

“Murder talks in the bedroom,” Jared said. “Next thing you know, it’s going to be planning a hostage situation in the bathroom.”

Evan glanced at the clock again. “Food,” he groaned, reaching for the side of the bed, accidentally rolling off the edge of it and hitting the floor with a dull  _ thump _ . “Ow.”

Jared laughed. “Good  _ job _ , Evan.”

“ _ Thank _ you, Jared.” Getting to his feet, Evan stretched and went searching for his pants. There was a smile that seemed to be permanently stuck on his face as he went about his business-  _ god _ , he loved his boyfriends. So much.

“What’d I do without you guys?” Evan said, locating his sweatpants and tugging them on. 

“Probably crash and burn,” Connor joked.

“Honestly though? Where’s the lie?”

Jared grinned. “Love you too, Ev.”

Evan hummed in response, stretching out his back. “I’m gonna be sore at work now.”

“Aw,” Jared cooed, cuddling up to Connor’s chest properly. “Then don’t go to work. Stay here instead.”

Connor nodded in agreement, hand coming up to run through Jared’s hair. “Sounds reasonable to me.”

“Stop being bad influences.” Evan huffed, sticking his tongue out at them. 

“Absolutely not.” 

Evan laughed, shaking his head. “I figured. I should probably go shower. And that’s not an invitation for round two.” He paused. “Probably.”

Jared snorted. “Then what’s the point in showering?”

Evan shot him a weird look. “To get clean?”

“Nah.”

“What do you mean ‘nah’? What does that  _ mean _ ? I’m so alarmed by this.”

Connor laughed loudly, breaking their conversation. “You two, I swear to god. You’re both so…” He grinned stupidly. “Cute.”

Jared poked Connor’s cheek. “Gay. Gay man.”

“Yeah, I am. Specifically gay for the the two of you.” Connor kissed Jared’s forehead. “Also I’m sleepy.”

Evan looked around for his shirt. “Then go to sleep, dummy.”

“You know what? I’m actually gonna take you up on that.” Connor pressed himself back into the bed, grabbing the blanket and pulling it over his head. 

Locating his shirt, Evan tugged it on. Jared got up as well, grabbing for his glasses. “C’mon, dumbass. I’ll make you food.”

“You mean heat up my food that became cold in the first place because you wanted to have sex,” Evan said. “Also, who you calling ‘dumbass’, dumbass?”

“My sweet, sweet boyfriend,” Jared replied.

“Noisy people, go away,” Connor groaned from beneath the covers.

Jared stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend, who, of course, couldn’t see him. He wished he could go back to sleeping as well, but he really needed to crack the situation on the SQUIP pill as well. Every second he stalled was a second more risk to the public. As much as he pretended to not care, he still did.

“The grind never stops,” Jared muttered to himself, following Evan out of the bedroom.

\---

“So you mean you’re going to send a super strong wave of electricity into that thing?” Connor eyed both Jared and the pill dubiously. The two of them were sitting on the couches in the living room, Connor having just woken up. “You’re gonna fuckin’ Taser the thing?”

“Now, when you put it like that…” Jared shrugged. “I’m just not getting enough info out of it. I think if I just send in a stronger pulse, it’ll work.”

“Okay, but why are you asking me? You’re the one who deals with the techy shit. I just go stabby stabby.”

“I need extra input on my idea.”

“I think it’s a terrible idea.”

“That’s my quota for constructive criticism for the day.” Jared held the pill up. “Here goes nothing.”

He closed his fingers around the small computer and exhaled. A steady thrum of electrical energy surged through his fingers, channeling through his gloves and into the pill, and he willed it to strengthen.

A flow of information was pinging back to him- again, mostly gibberish abbreviations and random lines of code- but once Jared increased the voltage, some more information flowed back, most of it still indecipherable.

“I’m gonna juice it up more,” Jared told Connor.

“Terrible idea,” his boyfriend repeated. “It’s going to zap us right back into 1983.”

Mustering his energy, Jared sent in a large burst of electricity, and the information pings increased a hundred-fold, additionally giving him a headache. Frankly, he was shocked that so much energy and information could fit within the hardware of the tiny device.

Jared’s eyebrows furrowed in both concentration and frustration. “There’s just no damn  _ sense _ to this thing, he huffed. “It’s giving me random chunks of code but the chunks I’m receiving don’t  _ work.  _ Like, theoretically, this coding  _ should  _ just be nonsense. But somehow it's doing shit. I don’t get it.” 

Connor hummed in response. “Maybe you’re not as good with coding as you thought, then,” He teased. “Because this code obviously does some wild shit.” 

Jared tsked. “This pill is  _ way _ stronger than I thought.” 

“Like, stronger as in it’s gonna take over the world?”

“No, stronger as in I’m  _ really _ zapping this thing pretty hard now and it doesn’t show any sign of shorting out.” Jared winced slightly as his headache grew stronger. 

Connor quirked an eyebrow. “What’s wrong? Is it zapping you back or somethin’?”

Jared shook his head, grimacing to himself. “It’s giving me a damn headache. Must be from all the nonsense code. Brain no likey.”

“Is it giving you  _ any _ useful info?” 

“Info yeah, but useful? I’m not sure. Maybe I can write some of this script out and see what it does when plugged into a coding program? The thing I still don’t understand is how this thing would even  _ activate _ -” His sentence was cut off abruptly as his headache suddenly flared, making him hiss in pain. “Ah,” He grunted, bringing his free hand up to his head. 

Connor frowned in concern, moving a bit closer to Jared. “Maybe you should take a break. Something doesn’t feel right about this. I don’t like it.”

Jared let a breath out through his teeth, cutting the electrical flow he had been maintaining and severing his connection with the pill. “Yeah, sure. I don’t know what’s causing this damn headache to hurt so much.” He grabbed the empty ring box he had been using to keep the pill safe, setting the aforementioned device inside and snapping it shut. 

“You want some Tylenol or somethin’?” Connor asked, already on his feet. “I’m gonna get you some even if you say no.”

Jared snorted, setting the box on the end table. “I guess I want some Tylenol, then.”

Connor nodded and shuffled off, heading straight for the medicine cabinet in their kitchen.

Jared sighed again, going over the data he had received in his head. It just didn’t add up. The feedback he had gotten had seemed less like the working code he had been searching for and more like the computer was almost searching  _ him  _ for something. He’d never seen anything quite like it. 

Returning with the Tylenol and a cup of water, Connor set the proffered items down in front of Jared. “Dude, you look like ass.”

“Mm. A headache does that to people.” Jared downed two pills with a gulp of water, but his head continued to throb. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Same,” Connor agreed. He looked at the pill. “Maybe we should destroy it.”

“We can’t. It’s our only lead. Hell, it’s amazing that I didn’t fry it.”

“Fine.” Connor sighed. “But I have a terrible, terrible foreshadowing feeling about this.”

Furrowing his brows, Jared said, “Foreshadowing?”

“Forget it.”

A sharp jolt of pain went through Jared’s head suddenly, and he winced in pain. “Ah, fuck.”

Connor studied him worriedly. “Seriously, Jared. Maybe we should destroy it. That headache does not bode well.”

“We can’t- ow,” Jared whined, rubbing at his head to no avail. “Fuck it. Sure.”

He grabbed the box and closed his fingers around the pill, sending a wild pulse of uncontrolled electricity into the device, gritting his teeth as the constant flow of nonsensical information resumed pinging into his brain-

And then it stopped. Jared opened his hand, and stared at the pill.

It had short-circuited, and was smoking.

Connor took it and dropped it to the floor, smashing his heel down on it and crushing it. “Just to be safe.”

Neither of them knew that the damage had already been done.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all complaints should be sent to customer service and keep in mind bodily harm to writers is not supported nor encouraged -quinn (we dont really know what we're doin w this)

“You what?” Michael blinked, eyebrows furrowing. “You busted our only lead?”

“Yeah,” Jared shrugged. “I think I already got all the info I was gonna get from it, though.”

Michael let out a sigh, nodding to himself. “Well… what now, then? Did you get anything helpful?”

Jared shrugged again. “I… don’t know.” He admitted. “Just- I need some time to figure it all out.”

Michael moved to sit on the arm of the couch. “I’m not exactly the one who’s putting a time limit on this. You can take as long as you want, but whatever’s goin’ on isn’t gonna wait.”

“I know that! I just need, like, a day. My head hurts like shit.” 

“Fine, whatever,” Michael held his hands up in surrender. “Well then what do you wanna do in the meantime? Play some Wii Tennis with me until our significant others get home from whatever the fuck they’re doing?”

Jared snorted. “I mean, Connor and Jeremy just went to go get some take out for our dinner. So I sure they’ll be home soon. But I was actually thinking I might go take a walk outside. Maybe the air will help my head, y’know?”

“You want to go outside? Amazing.”

“Don’t be rude, Mell.”

“Alright, but  _ please _ drop by Rio’s. She’s starting to think you’ve forgotten her.”

“No way, shit, really?” Jared furrowed his brows in genuine concern. “Fuck. Alright, I’ll go change. God, I love her donuts so much.”

“Get me a strawberry one, would you?” Michael called after him as Jared headed to his room to change into his more widely-known look. “You know I love that shit.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re gay!” Jared yelled back, tugging on a black T-shirt and his signature white hoodie, and pulling his mask up. He grabbed his gloves and pulled them on, heading out the apartment.

It only took him three minute to near Rio’s Donuts. He was getting hungry, too, and his stomach’s grumbling was distracting him from his pounding headache. Jared grinned at the familiar sign, hand already reaching for the door when something caught his notice.

A quick shadow, near the corner of his vision, gone so fast he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it.

“The hell?” he mumbled. Jared turned, but there was no sign of anything amiss. Maybe it was just the headache. Shrugging, he pushed open the door and entered pastry heaven.

Five minutes, a bag full of donuts, an emptier wallet, and a beaming Rio later, Jared walked out of the store and pulled his phone out, starting to text the group chat he and his friends shared.

“Bought a shit-load of donuts,” he muttered as he typed, not watching where he was going as he deftly navigated the roads. “Y’all can pay me back in a mi-”

Jared didn’t get to finish the sentence before something was jammed into his back, and he felt something warm and tingly seep into his spine.

It took a second to realize that someone had just attempted Tasing him.

Jared whipped around, dropping his phone, and glimpsed a look of his attacker- someone donned in pure black- before quickly setting his donuts down. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but if a Taser’s all you got, you really need to rethink this bit.”

His attacker didn’t hesitate before going in for a punch, which Jared barely dodged. Man, he was kind of getting out of shape.

Jared lunged for the other, hand outstretched and ready to deliver a strong shock, but he was caught off-guard by the appearance of a second assailant, this one holding a crowbar.

“Oh, man. Seriously?” was all he had time to say before the crowbar was hurled at him. He ducked out of the way, almost tripping. His headache was only getting worse by the second, and this amount of physical exertion wasn’t helping it at all. “I don’t think that’s how you use a crowba-”

Something slammed into the back of his head, hard, and Jared’s words came to a stop. He felt nothing at first, then a muted pain that was slowly spreading and intensifying. Before he passed out, though, he managed to catch a glimpse of yet another figure- this one standing over him, a white hoodie pulled over his head.

Then he saw nothing.

\---

“What do you mean he’s gone?” Evan demanded. Michael shrank back- Evan might seem like the least intimidating of the bunch, but when he wanted, the dude was  _ scary. _ “Where the  _ fuck  _ is my boyfriend, Mell?”

Michael stuttered for a second, tripping over his words as he tried to explain himself. “I- We- He just went out on a walk! He said his head was bothering him and he wanted some air!” 

Evan’s eyes narrowed as he stepped a bit closer, making Michael cower into Jeremy’s side slightly. “Why the hell didn’t you go with him, then?”

“B-Because! He’s a grown man! With supernatural powers! I thought he would be back in, like, twenty minutes at most!” 

“You  _ thought _ -”

Jeremy waved his hands in the air, trying his best to diffuse the situation. “It’s not Michael’s fault! He didn’t know! Shouldn’t we stop trying to throw blame around and instead focus on  _ finding  _ him?” 

Connor dropped a hand down onto Evan’s shoulder. “Jeremy is right. All we’re doing is wasting time like this. We should get out there and start looking. For all we know he could’ve just gotten lost or something.”

Evan grimaced, arms crossed. “It’s been  _ hours  _ and he hasn’t responded to a single call or text.”

Jeremy nodded. “Which is  _ exactly  _ why we shouldn't be wasting time. Michael, did he mention anywhere in particular he’d planned on going?” 

Michael squeaked slightly, straightening up as he nodded in response. “Uh- Rio’s! He was gonna stop by there.” 

“Well then, we can start there, right?” 

Connor already seemed to be formulating a plan of action. “We should spread out  to cover more area. Even if he did go by there, we should also check other potential places.” He pulled his phone out, checking the time. “I say we each check a different place around town to maximize our efficiency. We should hit anywhere he might go. Jeremy, you check that park by the hospital. Michael, you get the arcade downtown. I’ll check the video store and Evan, you go check out Rio’s.” 

The other boys all nodded in understanding. 

Connor spoke up again before anyone moved to go get suited up. “We have to keep in contact with each other, got it? Jeremy, you and Michael are to stay on the phone while you search your places. Evan, you stay on the phone with me, got it?” His jaw twitched slightly as he met Evan’s eyes. “We can’t afford anything happening to anyone else, got it?”

After a moment of silence there was a collective response of ‘got it’ from the other three heros. And with that, they headed off to get dressed and move out.

\----

Jared awoke in a sitting position with a splitting headache and a bitter taste in his mouth. His vision was blurry and dark, but he could vaguely make out the inside of a dark room. A closed door was to his right, and in the corner of the room stood a heavyset man.

“What the…” Jared made to get up, but the action was prevented by the handcuffs digging into the skin of his wrists, securing him to the chair he was sitting on. “... fuck?”

With a jolt, he realized that his gloves were gone- but his mask was still on. What the fuck was happening? The last he remembered was Rio’s- fighting those guys- getting knocked out-

A loud clang signalled the opening of the door beside him, and Jared winced at the light that came pouring into the dark room. A second later, the door shut, and Jared looked up.

The man in the white hoodie was standing in front of him, flanked by two more bodyguards, both clad in black and armed. Jared raised an eyebrow.

“This is an awful lot of manpower for just one tied up vigilante,” he said.

“Oh, I know,” the man in white replied. His voice was scratchy and yet oddly compelling- he had the air of a person who was used to getting what they wanted. “But it’s called being better safe than sorry, right?”

“I’d say it’s called hiding behind two slabs of nothing but meat and muscle, but each to their own euphemisms,” Jared spat. “What the fuck am I doing here?”

“Do you know what we in the drug business call you ‘heroes’, Electro?” The man seemed to take amusement in the name, as if it were affiliated with a villain rather than Jared. “We call you people who have no idea what you’re messing with.”

“Weird gray migraine-causing Tic-Tacs?” Jared glared at the man. “It’s hard to make an educated guess when you’re dealing with a bunch of uneducated high-school dropouts.”

“So much bark, and yet no bite,” the man mused. “But no. We picked you for a reason.”

“ _ Picked _ me?” Jared demanded. “Sorry, pal, I’m not for rent.”

“We debated retrieving the telekinetic one,” the man continued, as if Jared hadn’t said a word. “But your skill set is much more preferable to our line of business.”

“Let me guess.” Jared faked a deep British accent. “You have twenty-four hours to accomplish this ridiculously irrelevant task, or we’ll shoot you. And when you get back, we’ll shoot you anyway.”

“No.” The man pulled a chair up and sat down, his gaze on Jared. “That’d imply that we’d have to negotiate and persuade you.”

“Well, you wouldn’t expect me to just fuckin’ roll over, would you?”

“Actually?” The man reached into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a familiar looking object. “That’s exactly what we’re expecting.”

\----

“No sign of him on my side,” Michael said into his phone, turning away from the kids crowding over old arcade machines and pinball games. 

“Not here, either,” Jeremy replied. “Don’t worry, Michael. He’ll be fine.”

“But what if he isn’t? It’ll all be because of me, and how I let him just go off on his own, especially when he was obviously affected by that fucking drug.” Michael grimaced and rubbed a hand over his face, exiting the arcade.

“Michael, you literally had no way of knowing.  Even then, he’s pretty damn capable on his . You had no reason to be worried.”

Michael just sighed, gaze drifting up to the sky as he stood just outside of the entrance. “Jeremy… If we don’t find him…” He trailed off, the unspoken words pressing down on him like a weight. 

“We will,” Jeremy assured. “We’ll find him, Micah.”

Michael remained quiet for a moment,  guilt blocking his throat. Eventually he managed to get out a soft murmur. “I hope you’re right.”

\----

Connor grimaced to himself, eyes scanning the faces of each person roaming the isles of movie lined shelving. “He’s not here,” He informed, pressing his phone to his ear a little more firmly. 

Evan’s displeased noise could be heard over the line. “You’re sure?”

Connor was very sure. If Jared was in the store, Connor would’ve seen him. He always saw Jared and Evan before he saw anyone else, regardless of the crowd around them. He could tell Jared wants in the building. He kept looking from isle to isle anyway. “I’ll keep looking. What about you? Where are you?”

“I’m almost at Rio’s.” Evan responded. “I’ll ask her if he came by before I start looking around the area.”

“Good plan.” Connor nodded despite the fact that Evan couldn’t see him. “Do you want me to head over to you and help?”

When Evan responded this time, his voice was a bit more faint, as though he had gotten distracted and turned his face away from the phone. “Uh, I’m not sure yet. Wait until we know for sure if he’s been here.” 

Connor frowned. “Ev? Something up? Why do you sound like you’re looking at something weird?”

“Um. I’m not- Oh. Oh, shit. I think I just found Jared’s phone on the sidewalk. It’s smashed.”

\----

Jared’s heart leaped into his throat, but he didn’t show his nervousness as he continued his glare at the man holding the pill. “Yeah, I think I’ll take a rain check.”

Sighing, the man gestured to a bodyguard, who handed him a- can of Mountain Dew?

“Mountain Dew? Huge on chemicals, low on carbon.” Jared’s hands curled around the cuffs- if only he were Connor, or Michael, or Evan. Connor would be willing to break his wrists to get free, and Evan could just unlock the mechanisms with a vine, while Michael would be able to force the cuffs open. “Three out of ten on a Pepsi scale.”

“Take the pill.” There was no preamble.

“Yeah, uh, no.”

“Take the pill, or else.”

“That’s  _ literally _ the oldest quote in the book.”

The man sighed. “Take the pill, or we’ll get one of your friends and force them to take it.”

“Good luck with that.” Jared knew that his friends were probably on high alert after his disappearance. It’d take something way more dangerous than buff henchmen to capture them now.

“Let’s try this again.” The man nodded to his henchmen, and one of them grabbed his gun, flicking the safety and aiming the firearm at Jared. “Take the pill.”

Jared stared back. “I’m a millennial. It’s gonna take much more than death to scare me.”

“Oh? Then how about this?” The man took out a tablet and held it out to Jared. Jared raised an eyebrow, shaking his cuffs like Marley’s ghost. “My bad.”

He unlocked the tablet and held it up for Jared to see the image displayed. The moment Jared’s brain registered what the picture was, he paled.

“You know him?” the man asked, referencing the picture of an unmasked Evan on the tablet. “This was caught on surveillance footage minutes after the donut shop was defended by the hero known as Silver. Coincidentally, this man was wearing the same hoodie and shirt as the vigilante, and was in the exact same vicinity as him at that time.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Jared lied.

“Oh, but we do.” The man smirked. “We couldn’t find any information in the government databases, which was suspicious in and of itself. So we matched the face with a similar profile from an employee database.”

Jared felt his heartbeat quicken.  _ Shit. _

“Evan Hansen,” the man announced. “Works at Pottery Barn, aged 20, graduated from Ellison High.”

“So? I don’t know the fucking guy.” Jared tried his best to maintain a confident voice.

“We both know that you do. So I’ll ask you one more time. Take the pill yourself or we’ll force it down your throat  _ and  _ expose the boy.”

\---

“You found  _ what _ ?” Just from Connor’s voice Evan could tell he was antsy. “I’m coming over there.”

Evan crouched down, picking up the phone with the familiar sticker covered phone case and turning it over in his hand. He tried to turn it on, but to no avail. He grimaced. “It’s totally dead.” 

“Maybe he just dropped it.” 

Evan stood back up, slipping the phone into his pocket. “He didn’t.” 

“Yeah. I know.” Jared had never broken an electronic, especially by dropping it.

“This is bad, Con. I don’t like it.” Evan grimaced, looking around for any more traces of their missing boyfriend. His eyes almost instantly locked onto the discarded donut bag lying a few feet away. “He was at Rio’s. There’s a bag of donuts here, too.” He stepped over to it, crouching down and pulling it open to examine the contents. “Ah, it was definitely him. His favourite is in here.”

Connor mumbled his reply, voice low and full of worry. “I’ll be there in like 20 minutes. I’m already on my way. Just stay on the phone with me.” 

Evan jolted as he heard the sound of cans being knocked over from the alley just around the corner from him. “Ah, what was that?” 

“What was what?” 

Evan didn’t respond, getting to his feet and cautiously peeking around the corner. “Oh.”

\-------

“What exactly is this thing going to do to me?” Jared eyed the pill distastefully. “And what’s your big plan for after I take it?” 

“Are you trying to get me to monologue?” The man chuckled. “Because sure. We’ve got time. This super quantum unit intel processor will take over your brain- the part that responds to commands, anyway.”

He tossed the pill from one hand to another. “You’ll be doing things as you normally would- using your own methods, your own ideas- but you’ll be following my every command.”

Jared swallowed. “Oh, joy.”

“And as for the big plan… That’s for me to know, and you to help me achieve.”

There was a  _ pop _ and hiss as the man opened the can of Mountain Dew. 

“And… the Mountain Dew?” Jared asked, despite already guessing the answer.  _ That’s what triggers the activation mechanism. _

“Just a bit of extra flair,” the man replied. “Can’t have people calling us uncreative. Uncuff him.”

Jared tensed, readying to fight- but then he remembered the threat. Fuck. He couldn’t risk Evan- couldn’t afford accidentally exposing his friends and boyfriends. So he let the bodyguards unlock the handcuffs, but he flipped them off as he did so.

The man handed him the pill and can of soda, and smiled pleasantly. Jared glared at him, noting his characteristics- they were hidden, slightly, under the hood, but he could tell that his enemy was of Asian descent, although he had no accent.

“Whenever you’re ready,” the man said politely.

In ten seconds, Jared had run through every possible escape plan utilizing a can of chemically enhanced carbonated water and a chair, but ultimately dismissed them all. It was one thing if Jared himself got hurt. He  _ wouldn’t _ risk hurting his friends.

He exhaled, defeated, and popped the pill into his mouth, downing it with a mouthful of sweet fizzing Mountain Dew. Then, he tossed the can of still full soda at a distant wall, where it crumpled against the surface, making a mess.

“Hope you’re fucking happy now,” Jared hissed.

“Oh, trust us. We are.”

After a few minutes of nothing happening, Jared frowned. Was it possible that the pill had malfunctioned? Or that his abilities had rendered it useless?

Suddenly, a sharp jab of pain shot through his skull, and Jared grabbed at his head, wincing. A second jolt of agony washed over him, and he fell to his knees.

“What the  _ fuck?” _

\-----

“‘Oh’, what?” Connor demanded. “Evan! Evan, what the fuck?”

Evan crouched down,  edging around the corner slowly. “Cat.”

“Cat? What the fuck?” 

Evan shushed him, holding a hand out to the small creature that cowered a few feet away. It was still a kitten, dark fur matted against its thin frame as it looked up at Evan in fear.“A stray,” he murmured. “C’mere, kitty.”

“Evan, Should you really be doing this right now?”

Evan tsked, careful not to make any sudden movements. “It’s starving, Connor. I can’t just ignore it.”

There was silence for a moment before Connor sighed. “You have too good of a heart, you know that?”

Evan hummed softly. “I wanna try and get it. I’m gonna put you on speaker so I can set the phone down, but don’t be loud and scare it away or I’ll never forgive you, okay?”

“Okay. Don’t get rabies, please.”

“I won’t.” Evan quickly put the phone on speaker and set it down next to the wall of the alley. He moved closer to the kitten. “I’m not gonna hurt you, buddy,” He soothed. The cat looked like it was ready to bolt, but stayed in place. 

Eventually, he managed to get close enough to touch it. He carefully put a hand out, allowing the kitten to sniff his fingers before he gave it a few small pets. Once the creature seemed a bit more comfortable, Evan picked it up properly, standing up. “I got her!”

“Great,” Connor’s voice called. “Now what?”

“Uh.” Evan looked around. “Oh, I’ll put her in this box! Connor, we gotta get cat food.” 

“We- We can’t just adopt this stray, Evan.”

“Too late.” Evan cooed as the cat mewed up at him. He grabbed an empty box that was discarded near a dumpster, gently setting the kitten inside and folding the flaps closed. “She’s safe with us. I love her.”

“You can’t-” 

Connor’s voice was cut off by a new voice. A voice that was just as familiar, but much less expected. It rang out from father down the alleyway, startling Evan.

“Evan, I found you!”

Evan whirled to face the source of the sound. His tone was startled, just as Connor’s was through the phone.

_ “Jared?” _ they exclaimed simultaneously.

\-----

Jared’s head was spinning, aching, throbbing- he let out a pained yell and squeezed his eyes shut, a tear sliding down the side of his face. “Oh,  _ fuck _ , fuck, fuck,” he hissed to himself, grabbing at his hair.

The man was standing in front of him, calmly witnessing the spectacle happening in front of him. “Feels painful, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, no, this is hardly a fucking  _ tap _ -” Jared cut himself off with another yelp as what seemed like the millionth zap of pain stabbed through his head. “Fuck!”

**_Calibration in progress._ **

“What?” Jared spun his head around, searching for the source of the sound. It sounded weirdly echo-y, like it was bouncing around a cavern. But there was no one talking. “Who-”

**_Please excuse some mild discomfort while we access your frontal lobe._ **

“Woah, woah, buddy, no one’s accessing anyone’s frontal- oh,  _ fuck _ .” Jared sunk to the floor, hands covering his head as if that could ease the pain. 

**_Calibration complete. Access control procedure initiated._ **

Jared tried to gather his thoughts- maybe he could attack the computer inside his body? The unceasing stabs of pain weren’t helping him, though.

**_Accessing neural control._ **

**_Accessing muscle control._ **

“What the fuc-”

**_Access procedure complete._ **

Jared’s words died on his lips, and the pain stopped. He could have sobbed at the relief alone, but he  _ couldn’t _ \- he physically couldn’t. 

_ What the fuck? _

He tried to twitch his right finger- to no avail.  _ Oh, shit. _

The man stepped forward, a smirk on his face. “Stand up.”

Jared’s body lurched to motion, his hands bracing himself against the ground and stumbling to his feet- as clumsily as he usually would’ve. 

“Take your mask off.”

_ No. _ Jared tugged off his mask, revealing his face.  _ What the  _ fuck _ are you doing? _

“Good. State your name.”

_ No. No. No. Don’t do it- _ “Jared. Jared Kleinman,” he heard himself say.  _ Fuck. _

The man grinned. “Jared Kleinman,” he echoed. “Very good. Where do you live?”

Jared wanted to smash something- he threw all his willpower into taking control of his own damned body, but nothing happened. “New York.”

“Where in New York? Street and avenue.”

_ Don’t tell him- _ “Queens.” Jared’s mouth moved, telling the man his precise address and floor of their flat.

“Who do you live with?”

“Friends.”

“Be specific.”

“Evan Hansen. Connor Murphy. Jeremy Heere. Michael Mell.”

_ Stop talking. Stop talking. Please, please stop talking. _

“Very good. Now, Jared, do you know where your friends are?”

“I can guess.”

“Can you guess what you’re going to need to do?” 

Jared tried to look away as the man extended his hand, revealing another one of those  _ fucking _ pills, but he couldn’t. He took the pill, hands shaking, and pocketed it.

“Yeah. Yeah, I can.”

\-----

Evan stared at his boyfriend, who was grinning at him, his hands shoved casually into his pockets. “Jare- You’re okay?”

“‘Course I am!” Jared stepped forward, moving closer to Evan. “What’s with the box?”

“Uh- I- There was a cat- Where have you  _ been _ ?! We were worried out of our minds!” Evan carefully set the box down, lurching forward to pull Jared into a tight hug. 

Jared hugged back, chuckling softly. “Oh, sorry, I was just clearing my head.” 

Connor’s voice called out from the phone. “What the fuck, dude, don’t scare us like that! At least  _ call _ . What happened to your phone? Evan said he found it and its fucked.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s fine now.” Jared assured, pulling away from Evan’s hug. “Speaking of things that are fine,” Jared reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small flask. “You gotta try this.”

Evan’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the object. “Alcohol? Where did you get that? What is it?” 

Jared held it out to him. “It’s not alcohol. Just try it. It’s really good.”

Evan hesitated. “What is it? You’re acting weird, Jared. Where have you been?”

Connor cut in once again. “I’m five minutes away, guys.”

Jared’s easy expression seemed to falter slightly at that, but quickly went back to normal. “Just try it, Ev. Trust me. I promise I’ll answer all your questions in just a second.” 

Evan paused, expression still concerned, but he reluctantly reached out, taking the flask. “Promise you’ll answer all my questions if I try it?”

“Promise.” Jared nodded, grinning. 

“Evan,” Connor said, his voice concerned. “What is it? Jared, what are you giving him?”

“It’s nothing,” Jared called back. “Just a little surprise. And sorry, for making you guys worry so much.”

“Wait. Evan, don’t drink it.”

Jared’s gaze met Evan’s. “You trust me, right?”

Evan’s brows furrowed. “Yeah- yeah, I do.”

“Then drink it. It’s so good.” Jared mimed throwing back a shot. “Chug the whole thing.”

“Evan,” Connor said urgently. “Wait. Please. Jared, stop.”

Holding Evan’s gaze, Jared repeated, “You trust me, right?”

Something in his boyfriend’s gaze was so familiar- so comforting, that Evan couldn’t resist nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I- I do.”

“No, no you don’t, not right now,” Connor said frantically. “Evan, I don’t think you should-”

Still maintaining eye contact, Evan slowly lifted the flask to his mouth and tipped it back.

“Evan- Evan, don’t-”

Jared scooped up the phone, grinning.  _ “Too late _ ,” he said into the receiver, quietly enough that Evan didn’t hear him.

“Jared, what the  _ fuck? Evan Hansen, listen to me-” _

Evan gulped down the contents of the flask- tasting weirdly like Mountain Dew- and was about to put the flask down when something small entered his mouth- without thinking, he swallowed it, coughing slightly. He let the flask drop. “What was that?”

“What was  _ what _ ?” Connor demanded.

Evan stared at Jared. “Jared, what the fuck?”

Jared just looked at his boyfriend impassively, dropping the phone. 

_ Something isn’t right. _ Evan said slowly, “Jared. What was that-”

A stab of what felt like a painful electrical jolt went through his head and Evan yelped. “Jared- if this is a prank-”

Another wave of pain stabbed through his brain and Evan groaned, stumbling back. Before he got any reprieve, Evan let out a short yell of pain as his head started pulsing with stinging throbs, dropping to his knees and his hands flying to his head.

“ _ Evan!” _ Connor’s voice was frantic. “Jared, what are you  _ doing _ ?!” 

Jared chuckled in response, looking doing at the phone. “Jared is gone, sorry.” He brought his foot down hard on the device, smashing it and effectively ending the call.

\-------

“ _ Fuck _ !” Connor all but screamed, sprinting down the sidewalk in the direction of the two boys. His heart pounded in his chest from both fear and exertion. 

It only took seven minutes for Connor to reach the alleyway that the call had come from. Seven agonizing minutes before he rounded the corner to discover nothing but a damp, dingy alley with no signs of life. 

_ “Fuck _ ,” Connor hissed, swinging a punch directly into the brick wall. He ignored the stinging pain and bleeding cuts on his knuckles. “Evan! Jared! Where are you?! “ He called out, spinning in a circle.

No response.

He swore again, gritting his teeth. His heart ached in his chest somewhere underneath the feeling of bitter helplessness. “Please,” He breathed to himself. “Give them back.” He brought his hands up to tangle in his hair, tugging at it slightly. “Fuck, I never should’ve let him go alone.”

Connor’s head snapped up as he heard a rustling noise. “Evan? Jared?” 

The only response he received was a soft, pitiful mew. It was muffled slightly, but still loud enough for Connor to pinpoint a cardboard box resting against the wall a few feet away. 

“God damn it. Fuck.” Connor grimaced, pulling open the flaps. There, staring up at him, was a small trembling kitten with big eyes. The kitten Evan had found. 

“Fuck.” He couldn't just leave it, no matter how much he felt like throwing himself off of a bridge right now.

Connor looked at the shivering cat, making a decision. He made to pet it, realizing how equally shaky his own hand was. He blinked the shocked tears out of his eyes and took his phone out, texting Jeremy and Michael and telling them that he’d be home soon.

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Connor gently scooped up the cat. It put up little to no fight- probably from being too malnourished- and he stroked it gently, feeling its ribs through the fur, the cat’s back visibly rising and falling with each breath it took. 

His breathing was labored, but he hadn’t started really breaking down yet. Knowing this was just shock, and that he should probably get somewhere safe, Connor clutched the cat tightly in his grasp and started heading home.

The cat mewed again in his arms, and Connor couldn’t help but glance down at it, noting how its fur was a sleek gray, almost like a coin. They needed a name for it, right? That was normally the first course of action normal people did when getting a pet?

Connor chuckled bitterly to himself. He was far from normal. He was about as fucking far from normal as one could get. Still, he regarded the cat in his arms, and a sudden idea struck him.

“Penny. I’m calling you Penny.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one (1) penny obtained


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> connor isnt doing too well -quinn

When Michael and Jeremy finally got back home, they were greeted with darkness. Every light in the house was switched off, instantly instilling a horrible sense of dread in both of the boys stomachs. 

Michael flicked on the living room light, sharing a worried look with Jeremy. “Connor? Evan? Did you find him?” He called out, his voice bouncing off the walls. They got no response.

“Jeremy, I don’t like this.” Michael frowned. 

“Me neither. Let’s go find them.” Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hand, threading their fingers together reassuringly as he led his boyfriend out of the living room and up towards the bedrooms. 

As they reached the hallway with the bedrooms, Michael called out again. “Connor? Evan? Hello?”

Instead of a spoken response, a loud ‘thump’ sounded from the direction of Connor’s room.

Jeremy and Michael once again shared a look of concern before heading over to stand in front of the door. 

“Connor?” Jeremy asked, raising a hand to knock delicately on the wood of the door. 

When they once again received no response Jeremy took the liberty of carefully pushing the door open, peeking his head inside. 

“Oh no.”

Connor’s room was trashed. Random objects littered the floor as though they had been knocked off of the various surfaces around the room in a fit of anger. Multiple small knives were stuck in the drywall which was covered in holes that were most likely caused by more blows from some kind of blade.

The lights were off and the only sign of life was the large lump- probably Connor- curled up in the middle of the bed. Even stranger, there seemed to be one corner of the room which was untouched, the only oddity being two small bowls carefully placed against the wall. One containing water and the other-- 

“Cat food?” Jeremy’s eyebrows furrowed even further. “What the fuck is going on?”

“You heard the sound, right?” Michael asked. Jeremy nodded. “But Connor’s out like a light, so who-”

A small mew came from somewhere in the room, and Jeremy nearly yelped as he saw two bright green eyes staring at him, piercing even in the dark. “What the  _ fuck?” _

Michael said quietly, “I don’t think it’s a  _ who _ we’re looking for.”

Jeremy crouched down, not wanting to flick on the lights and risk waking Connor up. “It’s a… cat.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

This came from the bed. Jeremy stood upright hastily, peering through the dark to see Connor sit up on the mattress slowly, his hair a mess and still dressed in what he’d been wearing when he’d left the house.

“Connor,” Michael said, exhaling. He snapped his fingers, and the lights came on. Connor winced at the sudden brightness- a brightness that also made the bags under his red eyes visible. “Dude…”

“You look like-” Jeremy cut himself off. “You look bad, man.”

Connor laughed harshly. “Oh, yeah. I definitely feel much worse, too.”

“Did you find Jared?” Michael asked hesitantly, not wanting to know the answer after seeing the state his friend was in.

“And… where’s Evan?” Jeremy added.

Connor gritted his teeth. “ _ Gone.” _

There was a shocked moment of silence. Then- “ _ Gone?” _ Jeremy repeated, incredulous. “How?”

“Fucking- Jared,” Connor groaned, putting his head into his hands. “They got Jared first, I think. There’s no way that could’ve been him. Then they got Evan.”

Jeremy knew not to push for details- not now. Instead, he bent down and scooped the cat up into his arms, the feline going along with it limply. “Where’d this guy come from?”

“Evan found her.” Connor reached for the kitten and Jeremy let him take it. The cat curled up in Connor’s arms and the mercenary stroked it absentmindedly as he said, “He was looking for Jare, and he was on the phone, and he told me he found a cat of all things- right before Jared came strolling up. Her name’s Penny.”

“Good name.” Jeremy offered him a smile. 

Connor just nodded. “Thanks.” 

Michael cleared his throat slightly, drawing the other boys attention. “Jere, uh,” He jerked his head towards the door slightly. “Come help me with some homework?”

Jeremy hesitated, casting one more glance at Connor. “Yeah. Con, if you need anything just yell, yeah?”

Connor scoffed, quirking an eyebrow. “I’m not helpless, Jeremy. I can take care of myself, you know.”

“I know that! I’m just trying to be a good roommate!” 

Connor just rolled his eyes, holding the cat a little closer. “Yeah, yeah, sure. Just leave me alone for now, would you?”

Jeremy nodded, turning back to follow Michael out of the room.

In the hallway, Michael groaned. “Jeremy.”

Jeremy was already shaking his head, pulling Michael in the direction of his bedroom. “I already know what you’re gonna say, and you’re wrong. This isn’t because of you. It’s not your fault.”

“I _knew_ he was feeling weird and i still let him go alone.”

“Not your fault.”

“But-” 

Jeremy cut him off instantly that time. “Nope.”

Michael just groaned again. “I feel so bad. Connor must be, like, dying.”

“Yeah.” Jeremy sighed, pushing open his bedroom door and pulling Michael inside. “He really did a number on the drywall.”

“We might have to keep a close watch on him,” Michael said quietly once Jeremy shut the door behind him. “Because- you know…”

Jeremy nodded. “Yeah.”

“We need to figure this out too, and fast. Jared and Evan are super fucking powerful, especially in a city run by electricity and on an island.”

Biting his lip, Jeremy nodded again. “True. And especially under mind control… They won’t hold back.”

“That’s not good,” Michael agreed. “Thing is, where do we even start? We’ve got no leads, no nothing. And we have to be really careful, since who knows what they’d be willing to do to Ev and Jare?”

“They’re probably going to send them after us,” Jeremy groaned, rubbing his face tiredly. “And they’re not gonna be careful about hurting  _ us _ .”

“This is an incredible shitshow,” Michael muttered. “Alright. What do we need to focus on?”

“What  _ can _ we focus on?” Jeremy held up a hand, counting things off his fingers as he listed, “Finding our friends, finding the guy behind all this, protecting civilians, finding a cure…”

“Assuming there is a cure.”

“There’s always a way to solve the problem,” Jeremy said, more confidently than he felt. 

“Let’s hope so,” Michael said. “Okay. Should we call in reinforcements?”

“We have reinforcements?”

“Kinda?” Michael sat down on Jeremy’s bed. “There’s gotta be other heroes, vigilantes, whatevers around the area. At the very least, there’s gotta be some around the globe. If all things go to shit, I’m willing to splurge for a few plane tickets to fly our backup in.”

“Assuming we do have backup,” Jeremy sighed.

“We’ll find some.” Michael slumped back on the bed. “We have to.”

\-----

Evan wasn’t a stranger to headaches. He’d suffered from plenty back in highschool, and being Jared’s boyfriend while living with his roommates didn’t help his case. But crumpling to his knees in that alley, his brain feeling like it was being stabbed, really was what they called a ‘new experience’.

Jared, on the other hand, didn’t seem put off in the slightest. He simple moved closer, crouching down beside Evan. He cooed at him, shushing him as he groaned in pain. “It’s ok,” He assured, voice as smooth as ever. “It’ll pass. Then everything will be perfect.”

Perfect? This felt like to opposite of perfect. Evan whimpered slightly. “Jared-” He was cut off by a new wave of pain, making him cry out. 

Strangely enough, Evan’s cry did seem to affect Jared. His calm expression twitched, faltering slightly for a moment. A conflicted look flitted over his face for a second, despite the fact that he remained silent.  He nodded to himself, attention returning to Evan properly. 

“Sorry. This’ll make it easier.” Jared brought a hand down on Evan’s head, resting his fingers carefully on the other boy’s temple. 

For a second, Evan’s head felt like it was buzzing. Then it felt like it was on fire. Then it was back to buzzing. Then he heard a whole new voice that seemed to only be in his head. 

**“See? Better, right?”**

_ What the fuck? _ Evan’s headache lessened slightly, clearing his thoughts just a bit. He recalled Connor’s frantic voice, and Evan had wanted to reach out to him, to call for help, but he hadn’t been able to move his body or control  _ any _ movement-

And then Connor’s voice had gotten closer. Jared had grabbed Evan’s arm, and the next thing the latter knew, the two boys were in another alley, someplace distinctly recognizable as Harlem.  _ Teleportation?  _

**“Evan,”** the voice inside his head repeated again, and Evan snapped back to reality.

_ What the fuck? _ Evan thought again.  _ Jared? _

**“No,”** the voice replied.  **“He merely activated me. You can call me your quantum unit. Or your ‘SQUIP’, if you’re looking for something shorter.”**

_ That doesn’t make sense _ , Evan thought blearily.  _ How do you know my name? _

**“I imagine not much does, to you** ,” the so-called quantum unit said.  **“I’m inside your brain. I can access every memory, every scrap of information you have stored in here. I know everything you do, Mark Evan Hansen.”**

_ Don’t call me that. _ Evan moved to open his mouth, to demand Jared for answers, only to find his mouth firmly closed, and his vocal cords unresponsive.  _ Why can’t I move? _

**“I thought that answer was clear. Mind control.”** The SQUIP- was it a SQUIP? SQUID?- sounded as bored as any robot could get.  **“Yes, Evan. SQUIP. Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor.”**

_ You’re incredibly cocky for a Tic-Tac. _ Evan hesitated.  _ Can I talk to Jared? _

**“No,”** the SQUIP said flatly.

_ Well, fuck you too. _

“ **Talking to him is not necessary. I can answer any questions you may have.** ”

_ What if I just want to talk to him? _

“ **Unnecessary.** ”

Evan would’ve groaned if he had any form of control over his body.  _ Why are you doing this? _

“ **I am not doing anything. I am merely one of many Units. My job is simply to assure that you do not intervene with the larger picture.** ”

_ Larger picture?  _ Evan hated this. He felt nauseous.  _ What’s the larger picture? _

“ **Unimportant to you. It’s time for you and the other one to return to the base.** ” 

Evan didn’t like the sound of that.

“ **Stand up. It’s time to go.** ”

Automatically, Evan’s body obeyed. He knew one thing at least. This wasn’t good.

\---------

“Up, Micah. School time.”

Michael curled up deeper into the blankets, whining loudly. “Do we  _ really  _ need college? Like, can’t we just go back to sleep? I feel like the recent events give us at least a little bit of a pass on all the annoying responsibilities, right?”

Jeremy rolled his eyes, tugging at the covers in an attempt to uncover his boyfriend. “We can’t work minimum wage forever. Besides, what Connor needs right now is stability. And we do that by keeping things stable.”

“Thanks for explaining.”

“You know what I mean! Being all sad is just gonna make things worse. We have to stay normal or else he’s gonna spiral. That's literally all we can do for him right now.”  Jeremy managed to tug the blanket down enough to reveal Michael’s face. “C’mon.”

Michael sighed, reluctantly sitting up. He rubbed his eyes groggily, one hand reaching out blindly for his glasses on the bedside table. “Everything is always so… tired.”

Jeremy hummed. “I don’t understand but yeah. You’re right.”

“After this whole shitstorm is over, we need some relaxation,” Michael mumbled, shoving his glasses onto his face tiredly. Jeremy reached over and adjusted them so the lenses weren’t as tilted on his boyfriend’s face.

“We’ll try,” Jeremy agreed. “One shitstorm at a time.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them were stumbling out of the shower, eyes still bleary with exhaustion. After getting dressed, Jeremy headed out into the living room, idly wondering if it’d make them late if they stopped to grab a bagel or donut from Rio’s.

“There’s always cereal,” someone said from behind him. Jeremy turned to see Connor, leaning against the kitchen counter, looking like absolute shit. The bags under his eyes were still there, if not worse, and Connor’s gray hoodie sleeves were pulled down, his arms bracing him. “Although, I may have finished the milk yesterday.”

“That’s fine,” Jeremy said, facing his friend fully and resisting the urge to ask about Connor’s wellbeing. He couldn’t resist. “Are you-”

“Don’t finish that,” Connor muttered.

“Sorry.”

“I’m fine,” the other said resignedly, after an awkward pause. “Not like I can say anything else.”

“Connor, you’re allowed to-”

“No, I’m not,” Connor said through gritted teeth. “If I’d gotten there sooner, if I’d gone with Evan, if I’d stopped Jare from fucking with that goddamn pill, we wouldn’t be here.  _ Jared and Evan _ would still be here.” Jeremy tried to intercede, but Connor didn’t stop. “So who’s fucking fault is it? It’s mine! It’s always my fucking fault, so why would this be a different case?”

Connor’s outburst had Michael hastily stepping into the kitchen, alarmed. “Connor, it’s not  your fault.”

“Oh, sure it isn’t,” Connor started, but cut himself off almost violently. “No. Whatever. Fucking- whatever.”

Michael and Jeremy exchanged concerned glances. The former found himself readying his powers to be able to step in at any moment necessary.

“You two should get going.” Connor jerked his chin towards the clock on the wall. “You’re going to be late.”

_ We can’t leave him here. _ The thought was mutual between the two younger boys.

“We’re not going,” Jeremy said. 

“Don’t waste your education on my account,” Connor gritted out.

“We’re not.” Michael stepped forward. “We’re going to stay home, and we’re going to figure this out.  _ Together _ . We’re going to find the fucker behind all this, and we’re going to make him pay.”

Connor hesitated. Michael pressed on, “We’re going to save New York City from becoming I, Robot, the sequel. We’re going to shut down or at least boycott the Tic Tac industry. But most importantly, we’re going to get Evan and Jared back.”

Jeremy nodded. “We’re going to get them back, Connor.”

Connor was tense, almost trembling- then he slumped down, looking like a pathetically broken doll, and exhaled audibly, his breath shaky. Michael hesitated, then went over, gently placing a hand on Connor’s shoulder comfortingly. 

“We’re going to get them back,” Michael repeated, and Connor looked at him, eyes gleaming. “We’re going to get them back.”

“ _ God _ , I hope so,” Connor murmured, almost to himself.

Jeremy smiled reassuringly, suddenly confident as he spoke. “We can track them down! No matter what, it’s still Evan and Jared. They can’t hide for long. We just need to think.”

Michael nodded in agreement. “Maybe we can try to bait them! Like, make it seem like we’re vulnerable but then ambush them and steal them back.”

“Oh! That might work! Like, maybe if we send one of us out alone and have the other two tail them? They seem to enjoy going after us when we’re solo, after all.”

Michael nodded again. “I mean, I’m not sure if it’ll work, but we should at least try it.”

“I agree,” Jeremy affirmed. “Connor? What about you?”

Connor seemed spacy as Jeremy and Michael turned to him, the boy having to take a minute before responding. When he did respond, his voice was considerably more devoid of emotion than usual. “Sure.”

Michael let out a soft sigh, grimacing at Connor’s gloomy attitude. Not that he could blame him for it, though. “Con, it’s all going to be okay in the end. I swear.”

Connor just hummed, nodding almost vacantly. “I’m gonna go feed the cat.” He turned on his heel, striding out of the room.

Once he was gone, Michael and Jeremy shared a worried look. 

Michael’s voice was grim when he spoke. “This is not good, Jeremy.”

Jeremy nodded in understanding. “Yeah. I know. Really not good.”

“Should we keep an eye on him?”

“We have enough things to keep eyes on already,” Jeremy mumbled. “But we’ll try our best, right?”

“Yeah.” Michael nodded. “We’ll try our best.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait folks

The three boys met up in their living room later that night to discuss the plan for luring out the others. It was only a few minutes into the conversation when Michael spoke up, voice firm. 

“I’m the one going out.”

Jeremy jolted slightly at the matter of fact tone. “Wh- Why you? Wouldn’t it be safer for me to go since I can get away easy?” 

Michael shook his head, glancing over at Connor who had been very quiet for the whole conversation. “You can follow easier with your webs while still out of sight. I’m an easy target.”

Connor hummed idly. “I don’t think easy is the right word,” he mumbled, petting the cat that was curled up in his lap. She had taken quite a liking to him pretty fast. Evan would’ve been proud.

Michael shrugged. “Easier.”

Jeremy frowned, feeling uneasy. “I dunno, Micah. It seems like a better idea if I go.” Truthfully, he was just scared of anything happening to Michael.

Michael, however, remained firm. “Jeremy, I’m going. I was the one who let Jared go out alone in the first place.”

Connor didn’t look up at them as he mumbled again. “Stubborn.”

“Okay, but what if they  _ do _ attack you? Evan’s got fire headed straight at you and the ground splitting apart at your feet, and Jared’s got literal Tasers for hands. What are you doing?” Jeremy challenged.

“Shielding, deflecting, sending them flying,” Michael replied.

“We can’t hurt them,” Jeremy said with a quick subtle glance at Connor, who seemed focused on Penny. “It’s, like, we gotta be on constant defense mode.”

“Maybe cognitive recalibration might wake them up,” Michael muttered. “You never know.”

“Just because it works in the movies doesn’t mean when you give someone extreme head trauma, they don’t end up with extreme head trauma.” Jeremy frowned. “And that didn’t make sense.”

“This plan doesn’t make sense,” Connor spoke up. “Why are we risking one of you guys? Send me out. Send me out there. I’m a better target. I don’t have any actual powers aside from healing.”

“Connor —”

“I literally  _ can’t _ die,” the mercenary continued. “I know Jared and Evan better. They might as well be targeting the next poor guy who gets left alone in an alley, so why not let it be me?”

“Connor,” Michael said softly. “We can’t risk you.”

“You mean you don’t want to send me out there,” Connor said bitterly. “You don’t trust me to actually do anything to Jared and Evan.”

“Con,” Jeremy started to say, holding out his hands in a placating manner. “We don’t think that.”

“I mean, don’t we?” Michael murmured, under his breath. Jeremy kicked him in the kneecap, his face incredulous. “Ow! I mean- of course we don’t.”

“You’re right,” Connor hissed. “I wouldn’t hurt them. I can’t hurt them. Not even if my life depended on it. But it won’t. I can’t fucking die, anyway. They couldn’t kill me if they wanted to. So  _ send me out there.” _

Michael grimaced, shaking his head. “What good would that  _ do,  _ Connor? Losing you would just make it that much harder to get them back.” 

Connor tsked but before he could respond, Michael continued. “I know you’re upset. I can’t even begin to imagine how fucked up you must feel. But you can’t just do something stupid because you’re sad. No offense, but I don’t think sending you would get us anywhere.”

Connor quirked an eyebrow, expression still highly unamused. “Thanks you your opinion. You’re right. You have no  _ fucking  _ idea how absolutely fucked this feels.”

Jeremy cut in, a hand coming up to Michael’s chest to lightly push him a little farther away from Connor. “Fighting isn’t going to get us anywhere! You two have to calm down if this is ever going to work. Stop arguing and lets talk this out rationally, okay?”

Michael nodded in agreement, taking a step back to  try and diffuse the growing tension between him and Connor.

Connor just grimaced, eyes shifting to stare at the wall a bit blankly. “Fine. Whatever.”

Jeremy nodded to himself, his hand dropping back down to his side. “Good. Now, which of us would  _ rationally _ be the best person to send out?”

“Me,” Michael said. “And I can explain why I think so. Look, if I’m the one out ‘alone’, then  _ you  _ can follow me from the rooftops and that way if anything happens then it won't be another situation like- like the last two. If you went, I wouldn’t be able to follow unless I was just tailing you. Which is considerably easier to notice.”

Connor scoffed. “Like some twink swinging from building to building is any more subtle?”

“I’ve got a suit in the works that helps with stealth,” Jeremy argued. “We just have to go out in a later time. But we can avoid all this by sending  _ me _ out. I can make a quick getaway, and defend myself.”

“If I go out there, I can’t be killed,” Connor said. “I literally can’t. Physically, can’t. They can send all they’ve got at me. I’ll be fine. You two can tail.”

“Fuck this,” Michael groaned. “Jeremy. You and me. Rock, paper, scissors. Connor, you’re not included.”

Connor sighed and leaned back. “Fine.”

Shaking his head, Jeremy did the hand motions and flipped out scissors the same time Michael fisted his hand. “Fuck.”

“You always go for scissors.”

“Maybe I’m trying to get you to take the hint to snip snip your—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Michael said.

“That’s fair,” Jeremy agreed.

“So, game plan: I go out there tonight. I try to get them to track me down, somehow.” Michael paused, looking at Connor. “Jeremy follows me, stealth mode.”

“While I sit at home, watching football games,” Connor said dryly.

“No,” Jeremy said, at the same time Michael shrugged.

“What he means,” Jeremy said, kicking at Michael, “is that you stay here, yeah, but you keep an eye out. Can you access Jared’s computer?”

“Physically, yeah. Accessing what’s inside it? Might take me awhile to dig up the password,” Connor said, “but I think so.”

“Can you keep an eye out for more potential cases, serious warnings, stuff like that?”

“Can I replace Jared, is what you’re saying.”

Jeremy winced. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Maybe not, but implications matter, Jeremy.” Connor sighed. “But sure, whatever. I’ll work on it. No promises.”

Jeremy nodded. “Thank you.”

Michael ran a hand through his hair, smoothing down any stray strands. “Alright then. I guess we better get ready then, hm?” He stretched his arms out over his head, his back popping loudly.

“Jesus,” Jeremy muttered. “Did you just break your spine? That was loud as shit.”

Connor hummed. “As someone who’s had their spine broken before, it would be much louder.”

“Great,” Michael responded. “Glad we have this information.”

Jeremy was already heading towards the stairs leading up to their bedrooms. “C’mon, we better go get ready. No time to waste talking about breaking our spines.”

Michael only grumbled slightly as he obediently followed behind, patting Connor’s shoulder as he passed him. “We got this, Con. You can trust us.”

Connor remained silent, nodding idly as the sound of their footsteps faded up the stairs. Trust was such an odd concept. Trust in others often tended to not work out for him, actually. He sank deeper into thought, debating whether or not he should actually listen to Michael and Jeremy. In the end, he figured that he’d never listened to them before and he didn’t intend to start now.

He stood up from the couch and headed for his room. Time to suit up.

\---

Michael gazed up at the rapidly darkening sky, nervous despite himself. He was dressed casually, in his usual red hoodie and a headband making sure his long hair didn’t get in the way of his vision. A small communication device was inside his ear, a matching one on the same frequency in Jeremy’s. “You good?”

“I should be the one asking you that,” his boyfriend replied, his voice slightly distorted from the unstable transmitter but understandable nonetheless. “Are you sure about this?”

“The sooner we get this over with, the better,” Michael muttered. “Are you tailing?”

“Yeah.” There was a small  _ twip _ sound, the sound of Jeremy’s web shooters, and a following sound of whistling wind, ending with a subtle  _ thud _ . “Close on you. Don’t look back.”

Michael walked down the streets, his pace a calm, unthreatening walk. He wasn’t sure what their game plan was- how they were going to get Evan or Jared to come out, or what they were going to do after. But first things first- he had to appear completely unsuspecting.

He walked a few blocks, purposely avoiding places with more people and sticking to the less popular roads. Before long, his legs were tiring, and he was getting hungry.

New York City had a lot of good places to eat at—and barely any of them were tourist traps. Michael elected to head for the nearest local diner, whispering to Jeremy through the comm that he was just going to get a bite.

He entered the diner—named Gemini’s Diner, which sounded just a hop, skip, and a jump away from being too hipster—and slid into an empty booth, nodding at the waiter who brought him a menu. The diner was mostly empty, only a few customers occupying some tables across from Michael.

“How’s it going?” Jeremy said through the comm.

“So far, no deaths,” Michael muttered, flipping through the menu. “Do you think I should get a pizza bagel, or just apple pie?”

“Definitely the apple pie. They have the perfect amount of cinnamon and apple,” Jeremy said. 

Michael hummed softly under his breath. “Maybe I should get some extra to take home. Think pie would cheer Connor up at all?”

Jeremy let out a long breath. “I dunno, man. Weirdly enough, I don’t feel like it’s gonna be that easy.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Michael mumbled, eyes still blindly scanning over the menu. “Shit must be rough.”

“Got that right,” Jeremy sighed. 

Michael just sighed back, folding the menu back up and setting it down as he waited for the waitress to return. His eyes drifted around the diner idly, taking in the quaint atmosphere.

“Hey Micah?” Jeremy’s voice was soft in Michael’s ear as he spoke up once again. 

“Hm?” 

“I love you a lot, you know. You’re a really really good boyfriend. And best friend. I feel like I don’t say it enough.”

Michael tried to fight the smile pulling at his lips so that he wouldn’t look like a psychopath to the other diner patrons. “You say it every day, Jerm.”

“Still not enough! All this shit lately… it really makes you think, Micah. I don’t know what I would do without you. You’re my world. I have no idea how Connor is able to stay as composed as he has.”

“Yeah…” Michael sunk down into his seat slightly. “I love you too, Jerm.”  Michael glanced up as his attention was drawn to the figure of a person walking past the front window of the diner. It took him a moment to process the persons face before he jolted. “ _ Shit _ .”

Jeremy responded instantly. “What? What happened? Are you okay?”

Michael straightened up, eyes wide as the person stopped, turning to peer into the diner and almost instantly locking eyes with Michael. Michael let out a disgruntled noise as the person smiled at him. “It’s him,” he breathed.

A small intake of breath from Jeremy’s side. “Yeah. I see him, too.”

“He’s coming in,” Michael murmured. 

“Should I…?” Jeremy trailed off, undoubtedly thinking this situation through in his head.

“Not yet,” the other said. “Hang on. Let’s see what he wants.”

“Somehow, I don’t think it’s pie,” Jeremy grumbled.

Michael’s body language betrayed no sign of his tension as Jared sat down in the seat opposite of him, casually picking up a menu of his own. None of them spoke for a few minutes, until Michael waved the waiter over.

“What would you like?” the waiter said, paper pad and pen in hand, poised to write.

“Apple pie and a chocolate smoothie,” Michael said, his voice tight as his gaze flicked up to his ‘friend’ sitting in front of him.

Jared placed his menu flat on the table, giving the waiter a grin that looked  _ so much _ like himself that Michael momentarily found himself relaxing. “I’ll have a cheeseburger with a side of fries. And Pepsi.” His usual order.

The waiter nodded, grabbing the menus off the table before retreating. Michael swallowed, gaze glancing up to Jared. “What are you doing here?”

“Why, Mikey,” Jared said comfortably, leaning back against his seat. Completely at ease, with no sign of being controlled. “Not happy to see your friend?”

“You’re not my friend,” Michael spat. “You’re some kinda weird computer  _ controlling  _ my friend. You took him, and then you took Evan. No matter what the fuck you are, you aren’t Jared.”

“Really?” Jared sounded amused. 

“Yeah. Mind control. You would know, wouldn’t you?” Michael tugged absentmindedly at one of the strings dangling from his hood. “All those nights watching sci-fi films and conspiracy documentaries. You’re gone,  _ Jared. _ ”

“Then explain to me how I still know about New Jersey.”

Michael’s knee banged into the table, and his eyes flicked up, surprised. New Jersey was a memory from a few years ago—a memory that consisted of five teenage superheroes meeting each other and getting into a few...  _ misunderstandings _ . “New Jersey, huh?” he said as calmly as he could.

“New Jersey, SoHo, that one time you, Jeremy, and Connor were on a mission and accidentally ended up on the outside of a plane,” Jared said, listing them out and lazily counting them on his fingers. “Need I continue?”

“So, this is like advanced brainwash?” the other said, leaning forward. “Is Jared still in there, then?”

Jared’s eyes glowed, then, for a split second—glowed a neon blue, like some kind of light flickering inside him. It was so swift, his gaze immediately fading back to his familiar heterochromia, that Michael wondered whether or not he was imagining things. “Who said he ever left?”

“It’s way too early in the week for this,” Michael muttered. “Let’s skip the small talk. What the fuck do you want? And what have you done with Evan?”

Jared snorted, cocky grin stuck on his face. “Just as impatient as ever, huh? I haven’t done anything to Evan. He’s doing just fine making his own decisions. As for what I want…” He trailed off, leaning back in his seat. “I think we both already know. Why else would I be sitting in this shitty diner with you?”

Michael grimaced, fingers tapping against the surface of the table separating them. “Alright, sure. Maybe you’re right. That still raises the question of why. Why are you sitting here talking to me? Do you expect me to just do whatever you say and go off with you to wherever? Because that is definitely not in the cards for tonight, buddy.”

Jared’s expression dropped into on of mild annoyance as he sighed. “Well, I figured a reasonable guy like yourself might be willing to listen to reason and make things easy. But, if you  _ insist _ on being difficult then that’s fine too. I don’t really care either way.”

“This isn’t right,” Michael muttered. “This isn’t you.”

“I can’t hear you when you mumble like that,” Jared droned.

“I  _ said _ ,” Michael spoke up, eyes fierce. “This isn’t  _ you.  _ The Jared I know would never betray his friends. He would  _ never  _ hurt the people he loves. And he would definitely never  _ abandon _ the people that love him.” Michael leaned forward in his seat, eyes scrutinizing as he stared Jared down. “Do you have  _ any idea  _ what Connor’s been like? I’ve never seen him so  _ hollow. _ The Jared that I know would never  _ ever  _ allow the guy he loves to hurt like that, supercomputer  or not.”

On the other side of the table, Jared’s eye twitched slightly. The tension in his jaw showed that he was gritting his teeth in irritation. When he responded, his voice was low. 

“Shut your god damn mouth, Mell. I haven’t abandoned or ‘betrayed’  _ anybody _ . I am doing what’s best for  _ all of us _ with this. Connor hurting is just a… side effect of it all. A temporary side effect. Albeit an unfortunate one. But it doesn’t matter! Because soon he’ll be with us again and it’ll all be fine. Like nothing ever happened. That doesn’t matter.” 

Michael watched as Jared’s eyes flickered slightly at the end of his statement, a hint of worried doubt seeping through for only a moment. 

“ _ Anyway _ ,” Jared continued, voice once again light and nonchalant as though nothing had happened. “This is all just to keep us safe. There's no way we could take down the guys behind this. And it’s not like they’re really hurting anyone. So why don’t you just take the pill and get this over with already, hm?” He offered Michael an easy smile as he held up a small circuit covered pill.

Michael reached out his hand, resigned,  and Jared dropped the pill into his open palm. “Knew you’d see the light,” the hacker said, smirking.

“Michael?” Jeremy’s voice was concerned through the comms. “Michael? What’s happening?”

The Filipino’s gaze met Jared’s, and the latter raised his head, looking over to a nearby waiter. “Can we get a cup of Mountain Dew Green?”

\---

Connor grinded his teeth together as he listened to the situation unfolding through the comms. His side was muted, so it was a one-way communication--no matter what he did, the others on the same signal wouldn’t hear him.

He was in a dark hoodie, the hood tugged up and concealing his hair, which was tied in a messy bun under the fabric. He had a couple of daggers strapped to the inside of his leg, a small handgun in his pocket, and a katana slung over his back- which wasn’t inconspicuous in the least, but it was safer (for Connor, at least).

“Jared,” Connor whispered to himself, when he heard his boyfriend’s voice over the comms. His heart clenched--Jare sounded so  _ familiar _ . It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard his voice for a long time. They’d essentially seen each other just a day before, but Connor still couldn’t believe that the person he was hearing right now  _ wasn’t _ his Jared.

“The Jared I know would never betray his friends. He would  _ never  _ hurt the people he loves.” Michael’s voice was clear, even through the transmission. “And he would definitely never  _ abandon _ the people that love him.”

Forget ‘abandon’. Jared had taken  _ Evan  _ with him.

Connor exhaled, a hand discreetly palming a blade and slipping it down his sleeve so it’d be concealed, but easily attained in short notice. He tilted his gaze up, scanning for Jeremy--to no avail. His friend had kept his promise on a undetectable stealth suit.

So he’d have to blend in.

He saw some people headed for the diner--a couple of friends, chatting with each other enthusiastically as if they hadn’t seen each other for a long time. They were definitely too engrossed in their conversation to notice Connor falling into step beside them, keeping a safe-yet-not-too-far distance from them, altering his gait to look like a third wheel. He was 99% sure he was discreet enough to avoid Jeremy’s detection.

Upon stepping into the diner, he saw Michael immediately--along with Jared. Connor froze, seeing his boyfriend sitting opposite from his friend. All instinct in his body told him to  _ go, go get him _ , but he gritted his teeth and managed to find a seat at a corner booth.

\------------

Michael eyed the pill in his hand, grimacing. “So this is it, huh? I take this and then what? I’m not me anymore? Some robot controls me for the rest of my life?”

Jared merely chuckled, expression smug. “Oh, come on now, Mike. Don’t be so crude about it. Besides, this is the only way for us to live our most optimized lives.”

“Optimized,” Michael mused. “Interesting word choice. Very clinical.” 

Jared just smiled in response. 

Michael pursed his lips. “Can I ask why you’re doing this?” 

Jared quirked an eyebrow, humming slightly. “We’ve already been over that. It’s because its the right thing to do.”

Michael hesitated slightly as Jeremy murmured in his ear through the comm. "I’m ready, Mikey. As soon as you give the word I’m in.” 

Careful not to give away anything with his expression, Michael continued the conversation. “Right. Sure.”

Across from him, Jared nodded. “It’s also really cool, actually. The computer is, like, super advanced. For instance, it can tap into local radio frequencies and play them right in your head.” 

Michael shifted, suddenly feeling slightly uneasy. “Oh yeah?”

“Mhm,” Jared smirked. “So I suggest you let your boyfriend there know that he won’t be ‘on’ anyone. This diner is full of people linked into the squip network. One wrong move and their squips will tell them to probably try to fight you. And we both know you guys would never harm any civilians, right?”

Michael grimaced, glancing around the diner suspiciously. “You’re lying. The pills aren’t in the general public like that yet. It’s mostly just crackheads and druggies.”

“Yeah?” Jared’s smile was taunting. “Wanna find out who’s right, the hard way?”

Hesitating, Michael tensed. After a minute’s deliberation, he sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Stand down, Jere,” he said quietly.

“What?” Jeremy sounded shocked. “Hang on, repeat that?”

“I said stand down,” Michael repeated, casting Jared an anxious and hateful glare. “There are other people in here with the squip. We can’t risk it.”

“There are  _ what?” _ Jeremy’s voice was panicked. “Shit. Shit. Okay. Fuck.”

“Now take your comm out,” Jared said, his voice smug.

Michael gritted his teeth. “I’m gonna go offline now.”

“Fuck…” Jeremy breathed, understanding the situation. “Okay. Okay. Stay- Stay safe, Micah.”

“I’ll try my best,” Michael replied. He reached up and pulled the small device out of his ear, setting it on the table, in front of Jared. Said man leaned forward and touched the comm gently, sending an overwhelming burst of energy into the device and frying all its inner components with one strong wave of electricity.

“Now, let’s play nice, hm?” Jared nodded towards the pill. As if on cue, a waiter approached and set down their drinks--the Mountain Dew shining mockingly on the table. “Take the pill.”

Michael realized that he was backed into a corner. If he said no, if he started a fight, then Jared might make true on his threat and prove that there were, in fact, multiple Squipped persons in the diner, potentially resulting in people getting hurt. But if he said yes…

“C’mon, Micah,” Jared practically cooed. “Just gulp it down.”

“No.”

But the voice didn’t come from Michael.

The Filipino whipped his head around, as did Jared, and his eyes widened as he saw Connor, standing in the middle of the diner, a knife in each hand and his eyes darkened with longing and sadness. The mercenary’s gaze was fixed on his boyfriend, who seemed unalarmed, leaning back in his seat and sipping at his Pepsi.

“Connor,” Michael whispered, his voice cracking. “Don’t-”

“Jared,” Connor said, and his tone was pleading. “Please.”

Jared’s eyebrow quirked. “Please, what, Connie?”


End file.
